Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s refusal to investigate the actions of a social worker. This is because there is no evidence of fault on the Council’s part.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will refer to as Miss X complains that the Council has:

• declined to consider her complaint about an investigation carried out by a social worker in 2017; and
• refused to allow her to have contact with her niece without a further assessment.

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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 @and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Miss X says she was a foster carer between 2017 and 2018. She says the placement broke down after she found sexual material on one of the children’s electronic devices. She is critical of the way the social worker investigated the matter and argues that failings on the social worker’s part meant the existence of a sexual abuser was not identified. She says this perpetrator went on to carry out another assault.
6. The Council has declined to investigate this complaint because the events took place more than 12 months ago. Miss X believes this is unreasonable and wants the matter to be investigated despite the passage of time.
7. Where a council has used its discretion not to investigate a complaint, the question for the Ombudsman is not whether its decision was correct. It is whether the decision was properly made and is defensible.
8. In this case, the Council has set out that it will not normally investigate a complaint so long after the events, and that matters relating to sexual assault are properly for the police. It is also the case that there is no prospect that investigation by the Council could establish a direct link between its investigation in 2017 and an assault in 2021. For those reasons, the Council’s decision not to investigate this complaint does not amount to fault and we will not criticise it.
9. Miss X also complains that the Council will not allow her to have contact with her niece without an assessment. She says she has been previously assessed that further assessment should not be necessary. This is a matter for the professional judgement of the Council’s officers, not the Ombudsman. Investigation would not achieve this for Miss X, so our intervention is not warranted.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because there is no evidence of fault on the Council’s part.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman