Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint the Council failed to provide her with support when she took over caring for her younger sibling in 2014. The complaint is late and there are no good reasons to decide to investigate it now.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains the Council failed to provide financial support when she applied for a Child Arrangement Order to care for her younger sibling in 2014. Mrs X says her circumstances have changed in the last year which caused her significant financial and mental health difficulties. She now believes the Council should have provided her with a Special Guardianship Allowance to help care for her sibling.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
3. 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. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

6. The Council has explained to Mrs X it completed a financial assessment in 2015 which found she was not eligible for any financial support when she took over caring for her younger sibling. The Council noted it had not heard from Mrs X until last year when her financial situation changed. The Council also explained the Child Arrangement Order ended when Mrs X’s sibling turned 18 earlier this year and any support that might have been available would end at this point.
7. The Council holds limited records for this case because it was not involved in the application to the court for Mrs X to care for her sibling.
8. We usually expect people to complain to us within 12 months of the events they are complaining about. Mrs X has been aware that she could seek financial support from the Council at least since the outcome of its financial assessment decision in 2015. If Mrs X’s circumstances had changed since then, there appears no good reason why she could not have approached the Council about this at the time.
9. The more time that passes between events and a complaint, the more unlikely it is we can investigate them effectively, gather reliable evidence and reach a sound decision. In older cases we also may not be able to achieve a meaningful outcome because too many circumstances have changed. We are often unable to establish why events occurred or understand who was responsible. Because of this, we will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the events that occurred from 2014 to February 2025, which is 12 months prior to her complaint to us.
10. We will also not investigate the Council’s handling from February 2025 onwards because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council in the way it has responded to Mrs X’s recent request for support, given the age of her sibling.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because the complaint is late and there are no good reasons to decide to investigate it now.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman