Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about the Council’s actions following a safeguarding incident involving her family. The Council has already apologised that its initial contact and communication was not in line with best practice. Further investigation is unlikely to achieve anything more.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains about the Council’s interaction with her following a safeguarding incident involving her sister’s children. Miss X says the Council did not give her enough details about the incident. This meant she could not make an informed decision about whether she should agree to her sister’s child staying with her while the police and Council completed their enquiries. Miss X feels the Council unfairly demonised her for deciding she could no longer continue with the placement of her sister’s child.

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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 we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation and further investigation would not lead to a different outcome. (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 Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

4. The Council has explained the child’s placement with Miss X was a private arrangement made by Miss X’s sister to comply with bail conditions. While the Council had not formally taken the child into care, it was supporting Miss X’s sister and her family. The Council has apologised to Miss X that it did not discuss the matter with her before she agreed to the arrangement. The Council believes this might have avoided the subsequent distress and difficulties that led to Miss X deciding she could no longer continue the placement.
5. The Council has apologised to Miss X for the distress caused by its poor initial handling and communication with her about the matter. We will not normally investigate a complaint where there is unlikely to be additional evidence we could examine to reach a different outcome. It is not a good use of public money to do so. In this case, the question for us is whether our intervention would add anything to the investigation the Council has carried out. There is nothing to suggest that it would do so.

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Final decision

6. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because further investigation is unlikely to achieve anything more.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman