St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council (22 016 365)
Category : Children's care services > Other
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 27 Mar 2023
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint that the Council has failed to provide the complainant with appropriate help. This is because investigation would not achieve anything significant.
The complaint
- The complainant, who I will refer to as Miss X, complains that the Council has failed to provide her with appropriate help.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Miss X says he has tried to access help from the Council but that this has been refused. She complains that, instead of providing her with appropriate services, the Council referred her son to Early Help. Miss X complained to the Council, which declined to consider the complaint on the grounds that there were no issues which required investigation.
- The evidence I have seen shows that Miss X’s only recent involvement with the Council was a referral to Children’s Services in March 2022, which was open for two days and resulted in the referral to Early Help. Whether this referral was appropriate is a matter for the professional judgement of the Council’s officers and it is unlikely we would find it amounted to fault. I note that the involvement of Early Help ended in December 2022, so there is no prospect that investigation by the Ombudsman would achieve anything significant.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because investigation would not achieve anything significant.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman