Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about problems with bank accounts held on behalf of children she fostered. The injustice caused to Mrs X is not significant enough to justify an investigation.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Mrs X, says the Council has not sorted out the savings accounts of two children it cares for, B and D.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word 'fault' to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe:
• the fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, and
• the injustice is not significant enough to justify the cost of our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered the information Mrs X provided with her complaint which includes the Council’s reply. I considered Mrs X’s comments on a draft version of this decision.

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What I found

4. Mrs X fostered two children, B and D, until they moved to a new home in February 2018. Mrs X says she has evidence showing she handed a Council children services officer cheques for the savings accounts for each child. £10 for B and £145 for D. Mrs X says six months later she discovered the cheques had not been cashed. She says the bank told her they could no longer be cashed. Mrs X says she is still the signatory on B’s bank account. She would like this changed.
5. Mrs X complained to the Council. It said it had passed her concerns to the team. But it said for data protection reasons it could not provide Mrs X with any information.

Analysis

6. Mrs X has been caused limited practical problems by the cheques not being cashed. She is also caused limited problems by having to hold the cash until it is claimed. Mrs X says someone else should be the signatory on the account. The negative effect of the children not being able to access the account is not being caused to Mrs X.
7. We could not accept a complaint from Mrs X on behalf of the children as she no longer cares for them.

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Final decision

8. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because Mrs X has been caused insignificant injustice by the alleged Council fault.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman