London Borough of Enfield (24 011 212)
Category : Children's care services > Child protection
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 22 Nov 2024
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council treating Mr X as vexatious and allegedly discriminating against him. There is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to warrant our further involvement.
The complaint
- Mr X complained about the Council treating him as a vexatious complainant from early 2023 onwards. He said it had discriminated against him because he has disability.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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 not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- We would not expect any council to deal continually with a very high volume of correspondence from one member of the public, even if this was the result of a disability. The Council supplied a copy of its letter to Mr X imposing restrictions on his contact. This referred to the volume and frequency of his correspondence that was making it difficult for officers to carry out their usual duties, and provided him with a single point of contact so he could continue to correspond and the Council to reply effectively. It also stated when the decision would be reviewed and told him he could appeal against the decision. The letter met the standard we would expect of a council when treating a person’s contact as unreasonable or vexatious.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to warrant our further involvement.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman