Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s response to the complainant’s concerns about his child. This is because we would not achieve anything significant by doing so.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X, complains that the Council’s children’s services officers were at fault in their response to his safeguarding concerns about his child.

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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 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:

• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants, or
• there is another body better placed to consider this complaint, or
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

3. We normally expect someone to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner if they have a complaint about data protection. However, we may decide to investigate if we think there are good reasons. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

6. Mr X raised concerns about his child’s welfare with the Council. He complains that officers were at fault on the way they responded. Specifically, he complains that they breached his confidentiality by contacting his child’s mother without his consent. He also says an officer accused him of being a rapist.
7. The Council says it has no record of this accusation. It accepts that it contacted the child’s mother but says this was appropriate in the circumstances of the case. Mr X is not satisfied with the Council’s response and argues that named officers should be subject to disciplinary sanctions.
8. The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we cannot achieve anything significant by doing so. Without a verifiable record of the conversation during which Mr X says he was called a rapist we can make no finding. Whether Mr X’s confidentiality was inappropriately breached is a matter he can take to the Information Commissioner’s Office, which is better placed than the Ombudsman to consider it.
9. The Ombudsman does not have the power to recommend disciplinary action. We consider complaints against councils as corporate bodies, not against individuals. We look at organisational fault, not individual professional competence, so investigation would not achieve this outcome.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we would not achieve anything significant by doing so.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman