Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about what happened to Mr X when he was an infant school pupil. There is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council to warrant investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr X said the Council wrongly refused to investigate what happened to him when he was an infant school pupil. He said the actions of a teacher were likely to lead to sexual activity.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

Back to top

My assessment

5. The matters complained about date from 2003-04. The Council declined to consider them because they are historic, and it would be unlikely to establish what happened. I do not necessarily take the same view. If a person claims to have been sexually abused when he or she was a child, it may take many years before they are able to disclose what happened. I accept a disclosure that comes many years later can be hard to investigate. But a person who may have harmed a child may still have access to children and there may have been other disclosures involving that person.
6. I asked Mr X what had happened to him and if he had reported it to the Council in his recent complaint. He told me he had reported it to the Council and named the same teacher to the Council he named to me. What he told me the teacher did was to instruct a class to carry out an action. The action Mr X said the teacher told his class to carry out is not something it would be reasonable to assume had a sexual context. Mr X did not claim the teacher had done anything else that would have reasonably given the action a sexual context. Investigation by us is therefore unlikely to establish fault by the Council in refusing to investigate Mr X’s complaint.

Back to top

Final decision

7. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault to warrant it.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman