Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s failure to progress her complaint about various matters in connection with a viability assessment. This is because there is no evidence of a significant injustice.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains about the way the Council handled her complaint in connection with a viability assessment.
2. Mrs X says she is complaining about the Council's processes, administration, record keeping, decision-making, evidence handling and complaint handling.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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 fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained,

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Mrs X which includes the Council’s response.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. A viability assessment is often used to assist decision-making by children's services. It may later be relied upon in care planning or presented to the Family Court if care proceedings are underway.
7. The Council says it was unable to progress the complaint. It says it asked Mrs X for a concise summary of the matters to be investigated. It wrote it was unable to establish the scope of a complaint investigation because of the volume and breadth of the material provided.

8. Having read the complaint information, I consider Mrs X is making broad allegations. She says the viability assessment was flawed, that evidence was ignored, that information was mishandled, that procedures were not followed, that there were failures in decision-making, oversight and record keeping, and that there may be wider organisational problems within the Council’s Children's Services. Mrs X’s allegations overlap with matters potentially falling within the remit of other bodies, including the ICO and Social Work England.

9. Mrs X also refers to a substantial evidence bundle, a 36-point dossier and a wider pattern of behaviour. However, she does not clearly identify a finite number of specific complaint issues capable of investigation through the complaints process. For the Ombudsman to investigate, there normally needs to be a clearly identifiable complaint about a particular administrative action and injustice arising from it.
10. We will not investigate. Mrs X has not identified a clear personal injustice arising from the complaint-handling which would warrant the use of public resources to investigate. Even if there were shortcomings in the way the Council carried out or explained the viability assessment, I have not seen evidence of a direct and significant personal injustice which would justify an investigation.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because there is no evidence of a significant injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman