Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s historic complaint about time he spent in the care of the Council. The complaint is late and, due to the passage of time since the concerns occurred, there is no realistic prospect of us reaching a sound, fair or meaningful outcome.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about care he received while he was in the care of the Council. His complaint includes frequent changes of carers.
2. Mr X says the matters caused a negative impact to his mental health.

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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 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)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

7. When we consider complaints about historic matters, we consider the below two-part test when deciding whether we should exercise discretion to investigate. Both parts of the test must be met for us to investigate.
1. We are confident that there is a realistic prospect of reaching a sound, fair, and meaningful decision, and
2. We are satisfied that the complainant could not reasonably be expected to have complained sooner.
8. In this case, test b is likely met. It is understandable that those who experience poor care as a child in care do not feel able to complain until many years later.
9. However, test a is not met. The concerns Mr X raised happened over 20 years ago. Therefore, it is unlikely we would be able to gather any reliable evidence to carry out a robust investigation. This is due to staff no longer working at the Council and records likely either being of poor quality, or unavailable.
10. Also, we cannot apply current standards, guidance, or professional expectations to historical situations. It is therefore likely to be more difficult to reach a firm and fair conclusion on whether there was any fault by the Council.
11. For this reason, we will not exercise discretion to consider this complaint now and we will not investigate.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is late and there is no realistic prospect of us reaching a sound, fair or meaningful outcome.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman