Sheffield City Council (26 007 824)
Category : Children's care services > Child protection
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 05 Jul 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate X’s complaint that the Council’s children’s services has failed to provide support for them or their children. This is because their complaint is made late.
The complaint
- X complains that the Council’s children’s services failed to provide them with adequate support as a child and has failed to provide support to their children.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- I will not investigate X’s complaint. The issues they have raised are about the Council’s actions from around 1970 up to around 2013. This complaint is therefore late, and I see no good reason why it could not have been made sooner.
Final decision
- We will not investigate X’s complaint because it is made late.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman