Summary: Mr X complained that the Council mishandled a child protection investigation. We will discontinue our investigation. This is because the Council has not yet fully responded to his complaint.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about how the Council handled a child protection investigation. He also says it delayed providing him with some documents and then refused to investigate his complaint.

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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 any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or it would be reasonable for the person to ask for a council review or appeal. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered evidence provided by Mr X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
4. Mr X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments before making a final decision.

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What I found

5. The Council carried out a child protection investigation in relation to Mr X’s children in September and October 2023. In January 2024, it wrote to him and told him the investigation had been concluded.
6. Mr X asked the Council for copies of the relevant child protection documents. The Council provided them in July. Mr X says this constituted a severe delay, which then caused a corresponding delay to his complaint about the child protection investigation.
7. Mr X submitted this complaint in December. The Council rejected it, saying the events in the complaint were too old (in that they had happened more than 12 months before the date of the complaint). Mr X was unhappy and approached us.
8. In January 2025, before we had started our investigation, the Council changed its mind. It responded to Mr X’s complaint and offered him the right of a second stage response if he remained dissatisfied.
9. Mr X says he is awaiting that second stage response.
10. As the Council has now answered Mr X’s stage 1 complaint, it has remedied any injustice which may have arisen from its earlier refusal to do so. There would be no benefit to any further investigation of that refusal.
11. Although part of Mr X’s complaint is about the Council’s delay in providing him with documents he asked for, this was a request made under the Data Protection Act and therefore is a matter for the Information Commissioner’s Office, not the Ombudsman.
12. Mr X still wants us to investigate his complaint about the Council’s child protection investigation. He also wants us to keep his case open until he has received the Council’s final response.
13. Our role is not to provide oversight of ongoing council complaint investigations.
    Mr X should wait until he has received a final response from the Council before returning to us. Until then (if, indeed, he still wants an Ombudsman investigation) we will take no further role in the complaint.

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Decision

14. I have discontinued my investigation.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman