Birmingham City Council (24 014 635)
Category : Children's care services > Child protection
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 12 Oct 2025
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of the statutory complaint procedure concerning the safeguarding of Mr X’s child. There is insufficient evidence of fault to warrant an investigation.
The complaint
- Mr X complains that the Council did not follow procedures and policies to safeguard his child.
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, or
- we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation.
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr X complained that the Council did not follow the correct procedures to safeguard his child and discriminated against him. The Council reviewed his complaint under the children’s statutory complaint procedure, but Mr X is still unhappy with the outcome.
- If a complaint has been considered under the three-stage Children Act complaints procedure, the complainant has had access to an independent and thorough investigation. We are unlikely to reinvestigate unless there is evidence that the earlier investigation was flawed.
- I will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify our involvement. The Council investigated the complaint in accordance with the procedures and further investigation by us, is unlikely to add to it.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify our involvement.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman