Summary: We will not investigate this complaint that the Council failed to take proper account of the complainant’s circumstances and used false information during child protection action. This is because we cannot achieve the outcome she is seeking.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will refer to as Miss X, complains that the Council was at fault in failing to take proper account of her circumstances and using false information during child protection action.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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

3. I considered information provided by the complainant.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Miss X’s son is subject to a child protection plan. She complains that the Council has based its decisions on false information and that the child protection conference which decided to make the plan was unfair. She wants the matter to be reconsidered and the false information on the Council’s files to be corrected.
6. The Ombudsman will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because we cannot achieve what she wants. The child protection conference was a multi-agency body and it was entitled to make its decision on the basis of the evidence before it. Even if some of the information on which it made the decision could be shown to be flawed, the Ombudsman cannot ask the conference to cease a plan it believes to be appropriate. Our intervention would not therefore achieve what Miss X wants.
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8. Whether or not the information on the Council’s files is accurate, we will not intervene to ask for it to be changed. This is because the file notes reflect the views of the Council’s officers at the time they were made. The most we would ask for in these circumstances is that a record of the complainant’s dissenting views is placed on the file. Miss X has set out her views in her formal complaint, so this has already been achieved and we would not aim to achieve anything more.
9. If Miss X believes the information held about her is factually inaccurate, she may pursue her legal right to rectification. The Information Commissioner’s Office is the appropriate body to consider the matter.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because we cannot achieve the outcome she is seeking.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman