Northumberland County Council (23 018 354)
Category : Children's care services > Fostering
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 21 Mar 2024
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the support given to the complainant as a foster carer and about how the Council responded to her subsequent complaint. This is because the complaint is late and there are no grounds to consider it now.
The complaint
- The complainant, who I will refer to as Miss X, complains that the Council’s social worker failed to support her during her period of employment as a foster carer.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- 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)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Miss X was a Council foster carer from 2021 until she resigned in February 2023. She complained to the Council that her social worker had not supported her. She alleges that the social worker’s actions discriminated against her and were characterised by ageism, sexism and bias. She further complains that the Council did not ask her why she had resigned as a foster carer, and did not take her complaint seriously.
- The Ombudsman will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because it is late. Late complaints are when someone takes more than a year to complain to us about something a council has done. This applies to the matters Miss X has complained about and there are no good reasons for us to consider them now.
- It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue. That is the case here. We will not therefore investigate how the Council responded to Miss X’s complaint.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because it is late and there are no grounds to consider it now.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman