Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about internal school matters, contact restrictions placed on her parent and alleged contact made by social workers following a family bereavement. We cannot investigate school matters, Miss X has not made specific complaints relating to restrictions placed on her and we are unlikely to find fault regarding communication around the time of the bereavement.

The complaint

1. Miss X says the Council lost her parents’ complaint to them regarding her return to school during the pandemic in the summer of 2020.
2. Miss X complains that contact restrictions placed on one of her parents by the Council have had a huge impact on her family and that they are being excluded from services because of this.
3. Miss X complains the Council and social workers lacked empathy after a family bereavement late in 2020.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. We cannot investigate complaints about what happens in schools. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5, paragraph 5(b), as amended)
5. It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue.
6. 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, or
• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
 

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

7. I considered information provided by the complainant.
8. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

Back to top

My assessment

9. Miss X’s parents complained to the Council about issues linked to Coronavirus and returning to school during the summer of 2020. This matter relates to the decision of a school.
10. The Ombudsman cannot investigate any complaints about what happens in schools (see paragraph 4) and the Council have already apologised for any mishandling of a letter sent into them at the time.
11. In relation to contact restrictions, Miss X has no specific complaint about how the Council are treating her. Should Miss X’s parent choose to complain to the Council about this, they have a right to do so. It would be reasonable to expect her parent to exercise this right.
12. Following the loss of a family member in December 2020, Miss X complains the Council lacked empathy and social workers requested her to complete assessments rather than be left to grieve. Evidence provided by the Council details assessments being carried out in October 2020 but that there was no contact or communication with Miss X or her parents about her in December 2020. The Council have requested any evidence of such contact to be sent to them so they may look into it. No evidence of this has been provided to us.

Back to top

Final decision

13. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because we cannot investigate what happens in schools, Miss X has made no specific complaint about her own treatment by the Council in relation to contact restrictions and we are unlikely to find fault regarding alleged Council communications with Miss X in December 2020.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman