Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the alleged attitude of a social worker in taking three and a half days to make a phone call. The situation is unlikely to have been an emergency and there is not enough evidence of fault or injustice to warrant our further involvement.

The complaint

1. Mr X said a social worker let him down badly by taking three and a half days to call the birth parent of a foster child to give permission for him to take the child on holiday. He said managers declined his request for a meeting when he complained.

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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:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.

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

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. I have seen no evidence in the complaint correspondence that Mr X’s request involved an emergency. If we were to investigate, it is unlikely we would find that a social worker taking three and a half days to action a task in a non-emergency situation was a matter of fault causing significant injustice to Mr X. Any subsequent decision by Mr X to resign as a foster carer would have been his own.

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Final decision

6. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault in, or injustice caused by the Council’s actions to warrant our further involvement. Investigating would also be unlikely to lead to any worthwhile outcome.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman