Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council not providing financial assistance to her granddaughter while at university. There is not enough evidence of fault to warrant investigation.

The complaint

1. Mrs X said the Council wrongly ended payments under a special guardianship order (SGO) when her granddaughter went to university, and this is causing financial hardship.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Ombudsman investigates 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 may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
5. I shared a draft of this decision with Mrs X and invited her comments.

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My assessment

6. The Special Guardianship Regulations 2017 state that financial support to special guardians ceases at age 18, or at the time when the young person leaves full-time education, which can be later. University education is higher education, so it is not included in this. Mrs X understandably points out that she and her husband are of an age when they are no longer working, and that supporting a young person through university is financially difficult. I also note that there is a significant difference between the Council’s duties to a young person who has been subject to an SGO, and what its potential duties might be to a young person subject to an SGO who has also been looked-after by a council, even if that period of being looked-after was only brief. However, the Council’s refusal to offer financial support to Mrs X’s granddaughter does not breach the Special Guardianship Regulations 2017.

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Final decision

7. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault to warrant it.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman