Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the accuracy of a children services assessment or an officer passing information about him onto a third party without his consent. The Information Commissioner is better placed.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Mr X, complains about children services’ actions.

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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 another body better placed to consider this complaint. 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 Mr X and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. The Council’s children services team completed an assessment on Mr X’s children’s situation in August 2022. The Council say Mr X commented on it and it placed his comments with the assessment. Mr X says he made further complaints about the assessment which the Council did not reply to. In August 2023 the Council told Mr X that it could not change the assessment and could achieve no more than placing his comments with the assessment.
6. Mr X complained in late August 2023 that a Council officer had told his children’s mother about a conversation he had had with a police officer. He says the Council officer should not have done this.
7. Mr X has the right to request records, such as assessments, are ‘rectified’. This means any factual inaccuracies are corrected. If the Council refuses to do so, he can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). Parliament set up the ICO to consider data protection disputes which includes ‘right to rectification’ disputes. The ICO are better placed than us to consider if the Council should change its records particularly because there are complex exemptions for child protection case files.
8. The ICO can also consider complaints about information being disclosed to third parties without consent. This means they are better placed to consider Mr X’s complaint about the officer disclosing his police conversation.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the ICO is better placed.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman