Staffordshire County Council (22 015 753)

Category : Children's care services > Child protection

Decision : Closed after initial enquiries

Decision date : 09 Mar 2023

The Ombudsman's final decision:

Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the production and accuracy of a social work assessment. This is because our intervention would achieve nothing significant.

The complaint

  1. The complainant, who I will refer to as Mr X, complains that a social worker produced an inaccurate assessment relating to his family. He further complains that the Council has declined to address his complaint about the content of the assessment and a conflict of interest on the part of the social worker.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

  1. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

  1. I considered information provided by the complainant.
  2. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

  1. Mr X’s daughter was the subject of a safeguarding referral, following which the Council’s social worker carried out a child social work assessment. Mr X says the assessment was flawed. He alleges that the social worker completed it in order to confirm her pre-existing views, and that it dishonestly misrepresents his family’s home life, finances and parenting. He also asserts that the social worker had a conflict of interest. He asked the Council to revisit the assessment and remove the social worker from her duties while doing so.
  2. The Council has declined to accept Mr X’s complaint on the grounds that the child protection case is closed, and the complaint procedure cannot achieve what he wants. Mr X disputes this.
  3. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because, essentially, it relates to the accuracy of the assessment. The Ombudsman will not normally expect an assessment to be retrospectively changed because it reflects the views of the officer at the time it was produced. Issues of the recording of false information can be dealt with through the legal right to rectification, and Mr X may wish to contact the Information Commissioner’s Office in this regard.
  4. Given that the case is now closed, there are no grounds to revisit the reassessment. The most the Ombudsman would normally seek to achieve in these circumstances would be for a record of the complainant’s contrary views to be added to the file. Mr X has expressed his views in his formal complaint, so these already form part of the record. There is nothing further we would seek to achieve.

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Final decision

  1. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we would not achieve anything significant by doing so.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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