Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the content of a Child and Family Assessment completed by the Council’s social worker. Investigation would not lead to a different outcome and is not therefore warranted.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X, complains that the Council completed a Child and Family Assessment containing inaccuracies, has failed to correct the inaccuracies, and has repeated them in subsequently.

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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.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Mr X’s family was the subject of a Children and Family Assessment in connection with allegations against him. Mr X says the Assessment carried out by the Council’s social worker contains factual inaccuracies. Specifically, he says a quote attributed to his wife is false. He says his family’s new social worker has repeated the inaccurate information at subsequent meetings.
6. Mr X complained to the Council about the content of the Assessment and about the fact that the Council had declined to correct it. The Council upheld his complaint in part, in that it accepted that the Assessment was not shared with the family before it was finalised. However, it found that the content amounted to a record of the social worker’s professional opinion based on the information available to her at the time. As such, it did not agree to change the Assessment’s content retrospectively.
7. The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because our intervention would not lead to a different outcome. We will not ask a council to alter its records retrospectively. Children and Family Assessments set out the professional opinion of social workers and it is not for the Ombudsman to ask for them to be altered. The most the Ombudsman would seek to achieve in such cases is that the complainant’s dissenting views or factual corrections are added to the council’s files. This has already been done in this case, so there is nothing for the Ombudsman to achieve.
8. If Mr X believes the Council’s records contain factual inaccuracies he may pursue his legal right to rectification. That is the appropriate recourse and there is no role for the Ombudsman.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman