Summary: We will not investigate this complaint that the Council failed to properly identify the complainant’s daughter’s needs and make appropriate provision. This is because the complaint is late and there are insufficient grounds for us to consider it now.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will refer to as Mr B, complains that the Council failed to properly identify his daughter’s needs and make appropriate provision.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. Mr B says the Council carried out a Child and Family Assessment in 2020 after he requested support from children’s services. Mr B says the assessment was flawed in that it failed to identify his daughter’s needs and, as a result, the Council has since failed to provide necessary services. He says the needs the assessment did identify were not addressed, The Council closed the case in 2020.
6. Mr B complained to the Council in 2022. The Council has declined to make a substantive response because the matter is more than 12 months old. Mr B does not accept this. He says the failure to provide services has been continuous and there have been specific instances of fault in the last year.
7. Mr B’s complaint to the Ombudsman is late. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to come to us. While there may have been later matters, the key injustice Mr B claims flows from the Child and Family Assessment and the Council’s subsequent decision to close the case in 2020. Other matters are inextricably linked to this. Therefore, the complaint is late.
8. It is not appropriate for us to exercise the Ombudsman’s discretion to consider the complaint now. This is because we could not achieve what Mr B wants. The Council says it is carrying out a new assessment to identify Mr B’s daughter’s needs and we cannot anticipate the outcome. Given that Mr B’s daughter’s needs may have changed significantly in the past two years, there is no prospect that investigation by the Ombudsman could make a definitive finding on what those needs were in 2020, or whether specific provision should have been made. That being the case, we would not be in a position to recommend the Council take the action Mr B wants. Our intervention is not warranted.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mr B’s complaint because it is late and there are insufficient grounds to consider it now.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman