Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the accuracy of the Council’s court report on her application for a special guardianship order. The Council has agreed to deal with the complaint at stage 3 of the statutory complaint procedure.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains the Council’s social worker provided an inaccurate report to court regarding her application for a special guardianship order for two children she cares for. Ms X says she only had a few days to consider the report before a court hearing was due. Ms X says the report damaged her self-esteem. She wants the report amending and for the Council to ensure the same thing does not happen to other people.
2. Ms X complains the Council delayed in dealing with her complaints.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if satisfied with action the Council has agreed to take.

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

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How I considered this complaint

4. I have considered Ms X’s comments and spoke to her by telephone. I have clarified the position with the Council and considered its stage 2 complaint reply to Ms X.

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What I found

5. The stage 2 report says Ms X complained to the Council in December 2017. The Council replied to the complaints in February and April 2018. In May 2018 Ms X asked the Council to go to stage 2 of the complaint procedure.
6. On 4 February 2019 the Council sent Ms X its reply at stage 2 and its investigation report. Stage 2 upholds Ms X’s complaint. The Council apologised to Ms X and offered her compensation. On 8 February Ms X requested stage 3 which is review by a panel.
7. The Council discussed with Ms X a complaint to this office rather than going to stage 3 because it had reached a final view of the complaint.

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Analysis - agreed action

8. I will not investigate this complaint. I consider a stage 3 panel is best placed to consider what happened including the complaint handling. The panel can consider whether the Council has done all it should to avoid a repetition of the problems identified in the stage 2 report.
9. The Council has agreed to deal with the complaint at stage 3 of the statutory complaint procedure.

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Final decision

10. The Ombudsman will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the accuracy of the Council’s court report on her application for a special guardianship order. The Council has agreed to deal with the complaint at stage 3 of the statutory complaint procedure.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman