Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s children’s services involvement with Ms X’s family. The complaint is late, and an investigation is unlikely to achieve a sound, meaningful or fair outcome.

The complaint

1. Ms X complained about the Council’s children’s services involvement with her family during the 1970s. Ms X complained the Council:
1. used discriminatory language in its records;
2. did not complete risk assessments; and
3. failed to take safeguarding actions.
2. Ms X said these matters caused life-long distress.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. Ms X complained about wide-ranging failures by the Council’s children’s services, during the 1970s. The Council were involved with Ms X’s family for over 10 years, and Ms X raises concerns about it throughout its involvement.
8. The issues complained about happened more than 45 years ago, and so it is a complaint about historical matters. When deciding whether to investigate complaints about historical matters, we consider two tests. If either of the following tests are not met, we typically do not investigate:
1. we are confident that there is a realistic prospect of reaching a sound, fair, and meaningful decision, and
2. we are satisfied that the complainant could not reasonably be expected to have complained sooner.
9. Ms X gained access to historic social care records through a subject access request recently and raised her concerns with the Council soon after this. Therefore, test (b) is met because Ms X only recently became aware of the concerns.
10. However, I do not believe we would be able to achieve a sound, fair or meaningful decision by investigating, and therefore test (a) is not met. This is because our ability to gather reliable evidence diminishes as time passes.
11. Record keeping was of a much lower standard during the period Ms X complains about and it is very unlikely that any of the relevant staff members still work for the Council. This means we would be unable to gather any reliable evidence.
12. Therefore, an investigation by the Ombudsman is unlikely to be able to say one way or the other what happened, or why things happened, due to the passage of time. For this reason, we will not exercise discretion to investigate Ms X’s complaint.

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Final decision

13. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because the complaint is late, and an investigation is unlikely to achieve a sound, meaningful or fair outcome.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman