Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s failure to provide Miss X and her child Y with support they have been assessed as requiring. This is because the Council has carried out an investigation in line with the children’s statutory complaints procedure and offered a proportionate remedy that recognises the injustice experienced by Miss X and Y.

The complaint

1. Miss X made several complaints regarding the Council’s failure to provide support she and her child Y have been assessed as requiring. She said this matter has caused her distress and upset.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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:

• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

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

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. Miss X complained to the Council about its failure to provide support in line with her and her child Y’s assessed needs. She made several complaints to the Council about its involvement with her and Y including its failure to communicate with her and its delay in referring her for an assessment she needed.
6. The Council investigated Miss X’s complaints in line with the statutory children’s complaints procedure and upheld or partially upheld the majority of her complaint points. The Council agreed to carry out the recommended actions which included writing to Miss X to confirm what it would do next to ensure she received the support she and Y needed as well as a £950 financial award.
7. Miss X remains unhappy with the Council’s actions. It is not the Ombudsman’s role to reinvestigate matters the Council has already sufficiently addressed. The evidence shows the Council has carried out a thorough investigation into Miss X’s complaints and agreed to provide suitable and proportionate remedies. This is what we would expect it to do. There is no evidence of fault in the way the Council carried out the investigation. We will therefore not investigate this complaint as the Council has already appropriately remedied the injustice Miss X experienced through its complaints process.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because the Council has carried out an investigation in line with the children’s statutory complaints procedure and offered a proportionate remedy that recognises the injustice experienced by Miss X and Y.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman