Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Miss B’s complaint that the Council was at fault how it produced a viability assessment. The complaint is late and there are insufficient grounds to investigate it now.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will refer to as Miss B, complains that the Council was at fault in how it produced a viability assessment when she asked to be considered as a carer for her granddaughter.

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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 cannot investigate a complaint about the start of court action or what happened in court. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5A, paragraph 1/3, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I have considered what Miss B has said in support of her complaint and the complaint correspondence provided by the Council.

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What I found

5. Miss B asked to be considered as a kinship carer for her granddaughter in 2016. She complains about the actions of social workers and the content of the viability assessment they produced, which she regards as biased and inaccurate.
6. Miss B complained to the Council in 2016. She says the Council failed to take her complaint seriously. She says she was unaware of her right to take the matter further, and only became aware of the fault on the Council’s part recently, when another authority carried out an assessment.
7. The Ombudsman will not investigate Miss B’s complaint because it is late. Late complaints are where someone takes more than 12 months to complain to the Ombudsman about something a council has done. Miss B has known about the content of the viability assessment since 2016, so her complaint is late.
8. The Ombudsman has the discretion to investigate late complaints where it is appropriate to do so. That is not the case here. The viability assessment was considered it court. Therefore, by law the Ombudsman cannot consider its content or production. That being the case, the Ombudsman would have been unable to consider the complaint even if it had not been late.

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Final decision

9. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because the complaint is late and there are insufficient grounds to investigate it now.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman