Portsmouth City Council (24 021 887)

Category : Children's care services > Child protection

Decision : Closed after initial enquiries

Decision date : 22 May 2025

The Ombudsman's final decision:

Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about an assessment written by a social worker about Mr X’s family. There is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to warrant our further involvement.

The complaint

  1. Mr X said a social worker wrote defamatory and slanderous allegations in a report in an attempt to smear his reputation. He said the Council was biased and the claims made were unsubstantiated.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

  1. 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))

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

  1. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
  2. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

Back to top

My assessment

  1. The Council wrote a family assessment due to concerns about Mr X’s children after an incident. The Council spoke to both children alone to gain their views and recorded them in the assessment, which is what is expected. Both children expressed concerns about the family situation and Mr X’s actions. The assessment also included the views of Mr X and his wife. While Mr X disagrees with the content of the assessment, the Council was entitled to reach a view of the family situation.

Back to top

Final decision

  1. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to warrant our further involvement.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

Print this page

LGO logogram

Review your privacy settings

Required cookies

These cookies enable the website to function properly. You can only disable these by changing your browser preferences, but this will affect how the website performs.

View required cookies

Analytical cookies

Google Analytics cookies help us improve the performance of the website by understanding how visitors use the site.
We recommend you set these 'ON'.

View analytical cookies

In using Google Analytics, we do not collect or store personal information that could identify you (for example your name or address). We do not allow Google to use or share our analytics data. Google has developed a tool to help you opt out of Google Analytics cookies.

Privacy settings