Summary: We will not investigate this complaint that the Council delayed responding to a complaint under the statutory procedure for complaints about children’s services. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will call Mr X, complains that the Council have delayed considering his complaint under the statutory procedure for complaints about children’s services.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Ombudsman investigates 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 may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

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

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

What happened

5. In June 2021, we discontinued an investigation from Mr X’s wife after the Council agreed to consider a complaint from her at stage two of the statutory complaints procedure. I shall refer to Mr X’s wife as Mrs Z.
6. The Council contacted Mrs Z to arrange a meeting to discuss the complaint, but some correspondence to Mrs Z went unanswered. In late August Mr X contacted the Council to say that he would be taking over the complaint. However, appropriate consent wasn’t provided for this until late September.
7. In late September, the Independent Officer had a period of sick leave. Upon their return they sent a statement of complaint to Mr X who did not respond until after the deadline given.
8. The Council issued its stage two response in early February and Mr X requested escalation to stage 3 of the procedure. The Council sent Mr X some suggested dates for the panel to take place in March, but Mr X did not respond. The Council therefore suggested some dates in April and a date at the end of April has now been agreed.

Assessment

9. I will not investigate the Council’s complaint handling prior to July 2021. This is because this matter has already been considered under a separate complaint. We do not re-investigate complaints that have already been considered.
10. I will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about delays at stage two of the complaints process. The Council could not proceed with its investigation until it had the appropriate consent for Mr X to act on his wife’s behalf. When this was received the Independent Officer had a period of sick leave. Given these exceptional circumstances I do not find fault with the delay at the start of the Council’s stage two investigation. Furthermore, I consider that some of the delay was caused by correspondence to Mr X and Mrs Z going unanswered.
11. I will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about delays at stage three of the complaints process. The Council quickly tried to arrange the panel within the required timescales but did not receive a response. Given these circumstances I do not consider the delay was caused by fault by the Council. Furthermore, the delay is relatively short, and I do not consider this to have caused Mr X a significant injustice.
12. Should Mr X remain unsatisfied after the review panel has considered his complaint, he can complain again to us, and we will consider at that stage whether we can or should investigate.

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Final decision

13. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman