Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about child protection matters. This is because some matters have been previously investigated by the Ombudsman, some are late and others have not caused a significant enough injustice.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains about how the Council has dealt with her complaints. She says the Council has failed to respond to several of her complaints and wants it to do so.

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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
• there is another body better placed to consider this complaint.

(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)
4. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. The Council’s children’s services became involved with Miss X and her family after a safeguarding concern was raised in early 2023 leading to her children being placed on child protection plans which ended in September 2023.
8. The Ombudsman investigated a complaint from Miss X about how the Council managed the safeguarding process and how it dealt with her complaint about this.
9. Some of the issues raised by Miss X concern the Council’s children’s services and its safeguarding process from early 2023. I will not investigate Miss X’s complaints about these matters as we cannot accept repeat complaints about the same issues. Even if there were matters that were not considered under our investigation, we would not investigate them now as the child protection plans were concluded in September 2023 and I see no good reason why these matters could not have been raised sooner.
10. Miss X has complained to the Council about a data breach related to a meeting held in July 2023. This element of her complaint is also made late, and I see no good reason why she could not have complained sooner. It is also a matter that the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is better placed to deal with, as the ICO are better placed to deal with concerns about data protection breaches.
11. Miss X has complained about how the Council has corresponded with her recently. She says emails haven’t been responded to and about the conduct of an officer during a phone call. I will not investigate these elements of her complaint because I do not consider that these matters have caused Miss X a significant enough injustice to warrant our further involvement.
12. Finally, I will not investigate how the Council has dealt with Miss X’s complaints about these matters. It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue.

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Final decision

13. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because some matters have been previously investigated by the Ombudsman, some are late, and others have not caused the complainant a significant enough injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman