Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the way the Council dealt with a complaint by Miss X. There is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s complaint handling to warrant investigation.

The complaint

1. Miss X said the Council failed to respond to her contacts, failed to act on safeguarding concerns, cancelled meetings, made up lies, and is poorly organised.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate 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 continue an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. Miss X approached us in November 2022. She sent us part of a complaint originally made in June 2022 that was fragmentary. It was not clear what was being complained of. As there was no evidence she had exhausted the Council’s complaint process, we asked her to go back to the Council, and give it the opportunity to complete its complaint process before coming back to us if she was still dissatisfied after receiving the Council’s response.
6. When she came back to us recently, she said she had heard nothing from the Council. She said matters were stuck at a pre-court stage. I asked the Council for copies of what Miss X had sent it since November 2022 to pursue her complaint. It told me it had not had any further complaint contact from Miss X. I asked Miss X for copies of any complaint correspondence she had sent to the Council after November 2022. I have received nothing from her. Her position is that she complained to the Council in June 2022.
7. When we asked Miss X to go through the Council’s complaint process in November 2022, we would have expected her to complain to the Council about specific matters. She could have presented a fuller version of the fragment from June 2022 she sent us, or made a fresh complaint in writing. There is no evidence she has done either. We will not investigate a complaint where a person has not given a public body the opportunity to consider the matters complained of via its complaint process after we have decided it should have that opportunity. Therefore, there is no evidence of fault by the Council in dealing with Miss X’s complaint, and we will not investigate matters where the Council has not had the opportunity to consider the complaint.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council in complaint handling to warrant this.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman