Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about children services’ actions before May 2022. There are no good reasons the late complaint rule should not apply.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains about children services’ actions before 2022. She says this led to her family not getting the support they needed.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Miss X.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Miss X says the Council’s children services team received multiple referrals about her children in the five years before 2020. She says she complained in 2019 and 2020. In May 2022 she says the Council advised her to move home for her family’s safety. They moved out of this Council’s area.
6. In February 2024, Miss X says she complained to the Council about what she sees is a failure to support her family properly while she lived there. The Council has not yet fully replied to that complaint.
7. We will not usually investigate complaints about events known to a complainant for more than 12 months without good reasons. Miss X has provided no good reasons she could not have complained to us earlier.
8. When we are not investigating the main complaint, it is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because there are no good reasons the late complaint rule should not apply.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman