Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about the conduct of individual Council employees in late 2022. This is because Miss X’s complaint is late and does not cause significant injustice to warrant us investigating.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains about the conduct of individual Council employees during a supervised visit with her child at a contact centre in late 2022. Miss X says the Council has failed to respond to her concerns when she asked for her complaint to be escalated to stage two. She wants the Council employees to do their jobs correctly, issue an apology and receive training.

Back to top

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:

• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

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

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

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

Back to top

My assessment

6. Miss X has complained about the conduct of individual Council employees at an arranged contact appointment with her child in late November 2022. Miss X was unhappy that staff at the contact centre had asked her to wait for her child in reception rather than using a room she believed was unoccupied.
7. The Council responded to Miss X’s stage one complaint about this issue. It explained it has examined the accounts of the staff that witnessed the incident and its reasons for asking Miss X to remain in the reception area. Miss X remained dissatisfied with the Council’s response and asked for her complaint to be escalated to stage two.
8. Neither the Council nor Miss X have provided further information about what happened next. However, it is reasonable to have expected Miss X to have brought her concerns about this issue to us sooner and certainly within 12 months of the incident in late November 2022.
9. Miss X’s complaint about this issue is late and there appears no good reasons for us to exercise discretion to investigate this matter now. The Council’s stage one response to Miss X’s complaint at the time was thorough and well evidenced. There is limited likelihood of us achieving anything more by investigating this complaint further.

Back to top

Final decision

10. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because it is late and further investigation is not warranted based on the lack of significant injustice caused.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman