Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council (22 003 203)
Category : Children's care services > Looked after children
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 22 Jun 2022
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about financial arrangements for children looked after by the Council. This is because there is no evidence of fault on the Council’s part.
The complaint
- The complainant, who I will refer to as Mr B, complains that the Council has no policy on savings for looked after children and, as a result, children in his care have suffered financially.
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 may decide not to start an investigation if 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 complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr B is a foster carer for the Council and has two children in his care. He says that the children, who were in the Council’s care for over three years before coming to him, do not have savings accounts. He is critical of this fact, and of the financial arrangements in place in their previous placement.
- Mr B believes the Council is at fault in that it has no policy regarding savings for looked after children. He argues that the children have lost out on having savings and the Council should compensate them financially.
- The Council has declined to pay compensation. But it has said it will consider the issue of savings for looked after children as part of a policy review later this year.
- The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint because there is no evidence of fault on the Council’s part. Absence of a policy on this issue does not, in itself, amount to procedural or administrative fault. It does not therefore fall to us to consider.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr B’s complaint because there is no evidence of fault on the Council’s part.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman