Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about an assessment report produced by the Council in response to a safeguarding referral. This is because investigation would not achieve the outcome the complainant is seeking.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X, complains that the Council produced a flawed assessment report following a safeguarding referral relating to his child. It then unreasonably failed to correct the inaccuracies.

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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 effect 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 an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. Mr X says he made a safeguarding referral to the Council following an injury suffered by his daughter while she was in the care of her mother’s family. He says the assessment report the Council completed contained inaccuracies. Of particular concern was a statement which, in his view, implied that the injury had occurred when his daughter was in his care.
6. Mr X says he has asked the Council to amend the assessment report to correct the error. He complains that it has not done so. He wants the report amended and for an investigation to ascertain why the Council did not do so when he raised the matter.
7. The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we would not achieve the outcome he is seeking. We will not ask a council to change its records or reports retrospectively. The most we would normally seek to achieve is that a record of a complainant’s dissenting views is added to the file. The Council has already confirmed that it will add details of Mr X’s complaint to its case records and the Ombudsman would not seek to achieve anything further.
8. If Mr X believes the assessment report contains false information about him, he may pursue his right to rectification. It is open to him to bring his concerns to the attention of the Information Commissioner’s Office, which is better placed than the Ombudsman to consider them.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because investigation would not achieve the outcome he is seeking.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman