Torbay Council (19 007 684)
Category : Children's care services > Other
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 11 Mar 2020
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: The Ombudsman should not investigate Mr J’s complaint about his daughter’s social worker. There is nothing we could add to the Council’s investigation and we cannot achieve the outcome he wants.
The complaint
- Mr J complains that his daughter’s social worker did not use a pedestrian crossing when carrying his daughter across a busy road. This caused a risk of harm.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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 or continue with an investigation if we believe:
- it is unlikely we could add to any previous investigation by the Council, or
- we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I have considered the information Mr J provided with his complaint, and information provided by the Council when we asked about its response to the complaint. I have given Mr J the opportunity to comment on my draft decision.
What I found
- Mr J’s daughter is in the Council’s care. He saw her social worker carry her across the road. He says the social worker did not use the pedestrian crossing. Mr J complained to the Council about this.
- The Council does not accept that the social worker endangered Mr J’s daughter, but has undertaken to remind staff to use pedestrian crossings. There is no CCTV evidence available so it is unlikely we could achieve more than this, if we investigated the complaint ourselves.
- Mr J is seeking to have the social worker dismissed. This is not a recommendation we can make, so we cannot achieve what Mr J wants.
Final decision
- The Ombudsman should not investigate this complaint. This is because it is unlikely we could add to the Council’s investigation, and we cannot achieve the outcome Mr J wants.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman