London Borough of Richmond upon Thames (21 013 008)
Category : Children's care services > Other
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 12 Jan 2022
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about complaint handling. There is not enough evidence of fault to warrant this.
The complaint
- Ms X said the Council had failed to follow the complaint handling procedure.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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))
- We cannot investigate a complaint if someone has started court action about the matter. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- The correspondence I have seen shows Ms X has sought to complain about the Council’s adoption department and that the Council has recently gained a court injunction owing to the frequency and nature of Ms X’s communications concerning adoption. We could not investigate any complaints covered by the court injunction. That includes any complaint about the adoption of Ms X’s grandchildren.
- Since the injunction, Ms X has emailed an officer named in the injunction. I have seen a screenshot of the email. It calls an officer a “black CK” and a “bitch”. The Council has warned Ms X that she risks breaching the injunction, and that it will implement its policy for dealing with unreasonably persistent and vexatious complainants if she continues. Given the injunction and the email Ms X sent to the officer, it is not fault by the Council to decline to deal with her complaint and to warn her.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault to warrant it.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman