Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council (23 000 286)
Category : Children's care services > Other
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 03 May 2023
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the actions of the Council’s scrutiny committee in holding its children’s services department to account. The complaint is generalised and there is not enough claimed personal injustice to Mrs X to warrant investigation.
The complaint
- Mrs X complained via a representative that the Council’s scrutiny committee has failed to hold its children’s services department to account. She said she and her representative spoke for 2000 families.
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 any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained.(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- The complaint concerns the actions of the Council’s scrutiny committee in response to Ofsted reports. Neither the complaint to the Council nor the complaint to us is a complaint of personal injustice arising from fault. They are both generalised complaints that do not meet the criteria for alleged personal injustice laid out in the Local Government Act 1974 as given in paragraph 2.
- If Mrs X wishes to complain of personal injustice arising from fault by the Council, she would be welcome to bring the matters back to us, via her representative or personally, having first complained to the Council. We might then decide we can and should investigate them.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because there is not enough claimed personal injustice to warrant investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman