Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint that a social worker provided inaccurate information in an email because the issue has not caused Mr X a significant injustice and we cannot achieve the outcome he seeks. It is reasonable for Mr X to raise his complaints about how Contact between he and his child is facilitated as part of ongoing court proceedings. It is not a good use of resources to investigate complaint handling in isolation.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains that a social worker provided inaccurate information in an email to him about his availability for contact with his child. He also complains about the Council’s handling of his complaints about his matter. Mr X wants the social worker removed from his family’s case.
2. Mr X also complains that the Council has failed to facilitate contact between he and his child.
3. Mr X has also raised two further complaints about how the Council dealt with his complaints about the same social worker from Spring 2025 to April 2026.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. 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:

• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants, or

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

5. We have the power to start or end an investigation into a complaint about actions the law allows us to investigate. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we think the issues could reasonably be, or have been mentioned as part of the legal proceedings regarding a closely related matter. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8), as amended, section 34(B))
6. We will not usually investigate complaint handling if we are not investigating the rest of the complaint. This is because there is not usually enough injustice to justify us doing so. We collect information about particularly poor complaint handling practice and report this back to organisations. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), section 34B(8))

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
8. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

9. I will not investigate Mr X’s complaint that a social worker provided inaccurate information to Mr X in an email. I do not consider that Mr X has demonstrated that this alone has caused him a significant enough injustice to warrant our further involvement.
10. I will not investigate Mr X’s complaint that the Council has failed to facilitate contact between he and his child. Care proceedings for Mr X’s child are ongoing. It is reasonable for Mr X to raise these matters as part of the proceedings as they are directly relevant considerations being made by the court.
11. I will not investigate Mr X’s two complaints that the Council failed to respond to his complaints about matters from Spring 2025 to April 2026. We have previously considered a complaint from Mr X about the substantive issues raised in these complaints and cannot accept repeat complaints about the same issues. We will not investigate the Council’s handling of these complaints in isolation because it is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue.
12. Across Mr X’s complaints he has said that he wants his family’s social worker to be changed. it is for the Council to decide which social workers are allocated to which cases so we could not achieve the outcome Mr X seeks.

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Final decision

13. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because he has not suffered a significant enough injustice, we cannot achieve the outcome he seeks, some matters are for the courts and it is not a good use of resources to investigate complaint handling in isolation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman