Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council making Mr X subject to a child protection plan when he was under 18. There is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to warrant our further involvement.

The complaint

1. Mr X said the Council subjected him to a child protection plan for a year when he was under 18 due to wrongful concerns that a parent was harming a younger sibling.

Back to top

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 there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.

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

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

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

Back to top

My assessment

5. The Council received a child protection referral from medical professionals. This was that Mr X’s parent was exaggerating the illness of a younger sibling.
6. The complaint correspondence contains a records of Mr X’s parent’s statement of complaint to the Council at the second stage of the complaints process. In this, the parent stated their disagreement with the request of a hospital doctor to bring the child to the emergency department if there was any loss of function in any limb. The parent’s statement also stated the Council would do anything the doctor told it. The context stated in the records indicated the Council’s concerns about the parent’s actions went back some time.
7. The Council was entitled to decide that declining to follow the request of a hospital doctor in a serious medical matter created grounds for child protection action. Child protection plans normally apply to all children under 18 living in the family home unless the Council decides there is a specific reason why not. We could not say the Council should have exempted Mr X from this when he was under 18.

Back to top

Final decision

8. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to warrant our further involvement.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman