Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s children’s services refusing to consider her complaint. There is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to warrant our involvement, and we cannot achieve the outcome Mrs X seeks.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complained to the Council about her grandchildren’s care arrangements. Mrs X says the Council refused to consider her complaint because she does not hold parental responsibility (PR) for the children.
2. Mrs X says the matter caused significant distress.

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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:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.

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

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Mrs X complained to the Council about the care arrangements of her grandchildren.
7. The Council refused to consider the complaint. It said Mrs X did not hold PR for the children, but it had received a similar complaint from somebody with PR which it would respond to.
8. We would be unlikely to find fault in the Council’s decision-making here. The Council has a wide discretion to decide who can access its complaints procedure, and its decision here appears reasonable.
9. In any case, Mrs X’s desired outcome for this complaint is for changes to be made to her grandchildren’s placements. This is not an outcome the Ombudsman can achieve, even if we were to investigate. Mrs X would likely need to take the matter to court to achieve this 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 and we cannot achieve the outcome she seeks.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman