Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about children services decision to have a child protection plan. There are no good reasons why the late complaint rule should not apply.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Mr X, says the Council should not have had a child protection plan for his children.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Mr X says a Council children services’ officer provided a child protection conference with misinformation. He says this meant the conference decided to have a child protection plan. He says this ended in June 2022. He says that following a Tribunal appeal about education matters, he decided to complain about the child protection decisions.
6. The Council says it held the child protection conference which led to a child protection plan in May 2021. It says Mr X’s complaint is therefore over 12 months old and it will not reply to the complaint as it is too late. It also says it advised Mr X, at the time, of the appeal process against the decision to recommend a child protection plan.
7. The decision Mr X complains about, and the officer’s actions, were in May 2021. It has taken him two years to pursue his complaint. He says the Tribunal action took over his time. On balance this is not a good enough reason to disapply the 12 month rule.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there are no good reasons why the late complaint rule should not apply.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman