Leeds City Council (23 006 911)
Category : Children's care services > Child protection
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 17 Sep 2023
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about children services’ actions in 2020. There are no good reasons the late complaint rule should not apply.
The complaint
- The complainant, whom I shall call Miss X, complains about children services’ actions.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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)
- 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 do not start an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Miss X and the Council’s responses to Miss X which it provided.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Miss X complained to the Council in 2020 about its actions. She believes the Council’s social workers did not believe her and were biased. She says the officers have worked against her rather than with her.
- The Council replied within its Children Act statutory complaints’ procedure. It finished the final stage three in March 2021. Miss X complained to us in August 2023.
- We cannot investigate Miss X’s complaint about matters known to her for three years without good reasons. Here there are no good reasons given for her delay in contacting us. The Council’s final letter to her of March 2021 signposted her to us.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because there are no good reasons why the late complaint rule should not apply.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman