Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council not completing agreed actions after a historic complaint. The matter complained of is late and there is no good reason to investigate it now. Even if that were not the case, the Information Commissioner’s Office would be better placed than us to consider matters of data accuracy and disclosure.

The complaint

1. Mr X said the Council lied and discredited him when he was in its care. He said the Council had failed to do what they agreed when resolving his complaint. He said the Council had sent him a large bundle of his records but that this was too difficult for him to go through as English is not his first language. He said the Council had not confirmed it had made changes to its records or sent him copies of his adjusted records.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. 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)
4. 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 another body better placed to consider this complaint. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by the complainantl.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

Back to top

My assessment

7. The complaint correspondence Mr X supplied dated from 2018 and 2019. It shows the Council accepted fault in a matter and agreed remedy. Part of that related to Mr X’s records.
8. Councils must keep social care records for children in their care for their lifetime, or until they reach 75, whichever is earlier. It cannot delete records, but can add later corrections subsequently.
9. Mr X told me he received his documents from the Council nearer to 2019 than now. That means his complaint to us now is about a late matter. I would expect Mr X, who was an adult in 2019 and had an advocate, to have raised any issues with copies of records supplied or held back after his complaint to have complained to us sooner.
10. Even if the Council had supplied the records recently, Mr X’s complaint is about data. He says the Council has data about him that is not correct, and that it has not sent him everything he asked for. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has powers to compel disclosure and to require rectification that we do not have. It would therefore be better placed than us to consider the complaint. Mr X has confirmed he currently has an advocate. That Mr X does not find the Council’s records easy to understand would not be fault by the Council.

Back to top

Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is late and there is no good reason to exercise the discretion available to us to investigate it now.
12. Even if the matter was recent, another body would be better placed than us to consider the matters complained of.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman