Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council substantiating a safeguarding matter involving Mrs X. There is not enough evidence of fault by the Council in reaching the decision to warrant investigation.

The complaint

1. Mrs X said the Council did not correctly assess the threshold for causing emotional harm to a child. She said it carried out a flawed investigation based on inaccurate and incomplete information provided by a school. She said it failed to interview potential witnesses and did not give her an opportunity to respond before reaching its decision.

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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 there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.

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

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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. The Council supplied copies of the documents it received. These included confidential details of children.
6. The referral it received from a school stated the concern related to alleged humiliation of children during lessons. It provided the names and dates of birth of several children who were in different classes by virtue of age and stated they had been interviewed. The records of the Local Authority Designated Officer for safeguarding children (LADO) also showed another school had stated it had had similar reports from parents when Mrs X worked there.
7. The LADO’s role is not to duplicate the work of a school. Nor is its role to conduct a quasi-judicial process. Instead, its focus is on eliminating risk of harm to children. If we were to investigate, it is unlikely we would find fault in the way it reached its decision to substantiate a finding of emotional harm.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because investigation would be unlikely to find fault in the way the Council reached its decision.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman