Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about children services’ actions. The Information Commissioner’s Office and Social Work England are better placed.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains about inaccuracies in a children services assessment of her family and the Council’s reply to her complaints about this.

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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; or
• there is another body better placed to consider this complaint. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

3. We normally expect someone to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner if they have a complaint about data protection. However, we may decide to investigate if we think there are good reasons. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Mrs X which included Council’s replies to her.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. In March 2023 following her husband’s arrest, the Council started an assessment on her family. It produced two assessments. One in September 2023 and one in March 2024. Mrs X says the assessments contain inaccuracies. She says the Council has failed to put this right and this caused problems in the second assessment and she believes it will do going forward.
7. Mrs X complained to the Council in April 2024. It replied in its corporate complaints’ procedure. It issued its final stage two in July 2025. Mrs X says she made a subject access request (SAR) to obtain the documents the Council holds on her case. She says the Council did not comply with it.

Analysis

8. Mrs X has the right to request records are ‘rectified’. This means any factual inaccuracies are corrected. If the Council refuses to do so, she can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). She can also complain to the ICO about SAR failures.
9. Parliament set up the ICO to consider data protection disputes which includes ‘right to rectification’ disputes. The ICO are better placed than us to consider if the Council should change its records particularly because there are complex exemptions for child protection case files.
10. Mrs X says the Council has not complied with the Children Act statutory complaints procedure timescales. This complaint is about child protection assessments which do not fall within the statutory complaints’ procedure. The Council’s replies to Mrs X do not refer to the statutory procedure but say the replies are within the local procedure.
11. We will not investigate delays or procedural errors in the local complaints process as it is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are not investigating the substantive issue.
12. The Ombudsman cannot investigate whether social workers are meeting their professional standards of conduct. Complaints of this nature should be referred to the social workers’ professional body, Social Work England.

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Final decision

13. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because there are other bodies better placed.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman