Lancashire County Council (21 007 387)
Category : Children's care services > Friends and family carers
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 25 Oct 2021
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s failure to make payments to her whilst she cared for a child. She has delayed in complaining to us and it is reasonable to expect her to have complained earlier.
The complaint
- The complainant, whom I shall call Mrs X, says the Council failed to pay her sums it promised her for caring for a child.
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 effect 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 an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the Mrs X and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
- Mrs X had an opportunity to comment on a draft version of this decision.
My assessment
- In December 2018, Mrs X agreed to care for Z, her grandchild. She says the Council’s children services team were involved. She says in February 2019 the Council agreed to support the placement and to make payments to her as she applied for a Special Guardianship Order.
- Mrs X says the Council’s payments were delayed or not paid. She complained to the Council and us in November 2019. The Council replied to her complaint in July 2020. She then complained again to the Council in August 2021. It said the events are now too old, and Mrs X complained to us again.
- We should not use our discretion to investigate this complaint. Mrs X has delayed by over a year to pursue her complaint from July 2020 to July 2021.
Final decision
- We will not investigate this complaint. This is because it is reasonable to expect Mrs X to have complained to use earlier.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman