Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council (20 005 026)
Category : Children's care services > Other
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 30 Oct 2020
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: The Ombudsman cannot investigate X’s complaint as they are not complaining as a member of the public who has suffered a personal injustice.
The complaint
- The complainant, whom I shall call X, says the Council failed to provide the correct support to B. X says this put B and others at risk.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- We cannot investigate complaints from public bodies. (Local Government Act 1974, section 27(1)(a), as amended)
- We can only accept complaint from members of the public or their authorised representatives. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26A, as amended)
- 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 the fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered the information X provided with their complaint. X had the opportunity to comment on a draft version of this decision.
What I found
- X says this is a ‘professional’ complaint. They are the director of an organisation which helps vulnerable young people.
- X says the Council failed to ensure a young person, Y, received intervention necessary to both safeguard them and to prevent their behaviour escalating. X says this resulted in Y harming others.
- We can only accept complaints from members of the public who have been caused a personal injustice.
Final decision
- The Ombudsman cannot investigate this complaint. This is because X is not complaining as a member of the public who has been caused a personal injustice.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman