Summary: Mrs X complained her son’s placement does not meet his needs, and the Council has not kept her informed. We cannot investigate this complaint. Mrs X’s son did not consent to the Council sharing information with his mother. Therefore we, like the Council, cannot consider a complaint from Mrs X on her son’s behalf. We should not consider Mrs X’s complaint about the Council not involving her, as it is unlikely we would find fault in its actions.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complained her son's placement does not meet his needs, and the Council does not keep her informed. Mrs X is concerned about her son’s future as she believes his current placement increases his risk of becoming involved in crime or being seriously injured. She wants him to move somewhere else.
2. Mrs X also complained the Council refused to consider her complaint.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. We may investigate complaints made on behalf of someone else if they have given their consent. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26A(1), as amended)
5. 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:

• it is unlikely we would find fault, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.

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

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered the information Mrs X provided when she complained to us, and information the Council provided which included Mrs X’s complaints and its responses.
7. I gave Mrs X the opportunity to comment on a draft version of this decision.

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What I found

8. Mrs X’s son, Y, lives in a placement provided by the Council, which his mother consented to following difficulties with him staying in the family home.
9. Mrs X is concerned about the placement and she believes Y is allowed to do what he wants. She is concerned about his behaviour there, and believes he is at risk of becoming involved in crime or getting seriously injured. She says he has shown interest in being in a gang, and his friends there are not a positive influence.
10. Mrs X complained to the Council about this, and also about Council workers being rude to her and not involving her. The Council told Mrs X it could not consider her complaint about Y’s placement because Y said he did not consent to it sharing information with his mother. Y is of an age where he is legally assumed to be able to make his own decisions, and his mental capacity is not in question. Mrs X is understandably distressed and concerned for her son’s wellbeing. However, we also cannot investigate that part of Mrs X’s complaint for this reason.
11. We would not need Y’s consent to consider parts of Mrs X’s complaint that are about the Council’s interactions with her. However, it is unlikely we would find fault in the Council’s actions, because it must give significant weight to Y’s wishes when deciding how much to involve Mrs X. We should not investigate this part of Mrs X’s complaint.
12. In any event, we cannot achieve the outcome Mrs X wants. She would like Y to move to a secure placement with more structure. We cannot make decisions about where a young person should live, and so we could not achieve a meaningful outcome for Mrs X. It is open to Mrs X to withdraw her consent to Y’s placement at any time. However, this would usually be with the intention of the young person returning home. Mrs X does not want Y to return to the family home, and so it is open to her to seek advice about her options.
13. 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. Therefore, we also should not consider Mrs X’s complaint about the Council refusing to consider her complaint.

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Final decision

14. The Ombudsman cannot investigate the complaint about Y’s placement. This is because he does not consent to information being shared with his mother to facilitate the complaints process. We should not consider the part of Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s involvement of her. This is because we would be unlikely to find fault, and we cannot achieve the outcome she wants.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman