London Borough of Bromley (23 009 769)
Category : Children's care services > Disabled children
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 31 Oct 2023
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the refusal of a blue badge for Mr X’s child. There is not enough evidence of fault in the way the Council reached its decision to warrant investigation.
The complaint
- Mr X said the Council wrongly refused a blue badge application and declined to consider evidence provided.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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.(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- In this case, Mr X said the Council should have awarded his teenage child a blue badge due to his condition making his behaviour unpredictable. He said his child could run out into traffic when distressed and had no awareness of the danger. He said that an assessment carried out about two and a half years earlier had found his child’s development was delayed by about ten years.
- The Council took the view the assessment was too old. It considered evidence form the child‘s school, his Education Health and Care Plan, video footage of him, and an assessor’s report describing how the child walked in the presence of traffic. The assessor’s report found that the use of ear defenders and holding a person’s hand was effective.
- We cannot substitute our opinion of a matter for that of the Council if it has acted properly in taking a decision. I cannot say that the Council should have taken the older assessment into account. Nor can I say that doing so would have changed the decision it reached. Procedurally, it considered a range of evidence and issued a decision with reasons that were consistent with what it observed and considered.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to warrant this.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman