Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s refusal to consider her complaint about its children’s services. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council. We therefore cannot question the outcome.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains the Council failed to protect and support her when she was a child victim of abuse over 19 years ago. She complained to the Council about this but it refused to investigate her complaint due to the length of time that has passed.
2. Mrs X believes the Council has unreasonably refused her complaint. She says the Council’s lack of protection and support throughout her childhood has had lasting and serious impacts on her mental health. She wants the Council to accept her complaint.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word fault to refer to these. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Mrs X and the Council.
5. I also considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Generally, councils do not need to consider complaints that are older than one year. However, they can exercise discretion to consider older complaints in some circumstances. In deciding whether to accept an old complaint, councils must consider several factors, such as whether there is likely to be sufficient access to information or individuals involved at the time to enable an effective and fair investigation to be carried out.
7. The Council told us that it decided not to accept Mrs X’s older complaint because it considered it would not be able to provide a fair investigation due to the time that has passed.
8. Our role is not to ask whether an organisation could have done things better, or whether we agree or disagree with what it did. Instead, we look at whether there was fault in how it made its decisions. If we decide there was no fault in how it did so, we cannot ask whether it should have made a particular decision or say it should have reached a different outcome.
9. The evidence I have seen shows the Council’s children’s services were not formally involved with Mrs X at the time of the abuse or afterwards. I therefore consider it was open to the Council to decide that the passage of time would prevent it from carrying out a fair investigation, and therefore decline to accept Mrs X’s complaint. There is not enough evidence of fault in how the Council decided this. I therefore cannot question the outcome.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman