Liverpool City Council (23 021 118)
Category : Children's care services > Child protection
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 09 Jun 2024
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about historical child protection matters. This is because the complaint is late and there are no good reasons to exercise discretion to consider the late complaint.
The complaint
- Mr X complains about historical child protection matters and concerns about his allocated social worker at the time. Mr X also complains about the Council’s complaint process.
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 impact 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 or continue an investigation if we decide there is another body better placed to consider this complaint.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr X’s complaint relates to events from twenty years ago, when he and his siblings were removed from his parent’s care. The law says people must bring complaints to us within 12 months of being aware of the matter, unless there is a good reason. There is no good reason for the length of delay that would lead us to investigate these historical events now.
- Mr X’s complaint raises concerns about the social worker who was allocated to him at the time. Our role is to investigate the actions of the Council as a corporate body, not to hold a single officer accountable. If Mr X has concerns about the professionalism or integrity of an individual social worker, it is reasonable to expect him to report his concerns to their professional body, Social Work England.
- It is not a good use of public resources for the Ombudsman to investigate complaints processes alone, where we are not investigating the substantive complaint. Therefore, we will not investigate the concerns Mr X raises in relation to the complaints process.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s late complaint because there is no good reason for the delay in him bringing the matter to the Ombudsman.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman