Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council (24 012 402)
Category : Children's care services > Other
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 20 Oct 2025
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision not to progress Mr X’s representations under the three-part children act procedure. It is unlikely we would find fault.
The complaint
- Mr X complained about the quality and accuracy of the Council’s Child and Family assessments during his contact with the Council. He said because the assessments were wrong, the Council’s actions caused him significant stress.
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 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, or it would be reasonable for the person to ask for a council review. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- The Council replied to Mr X’s concerns at stage one of the three-part children act complaint procedures. Following this, Mr X asked for his complaint to be escalated to stage two, but the Council declined to do so, saying it could prejudice concurrent related court proceedings. It said Mr X could resubmit his complaint to the Council, after the conclusion of the proceedings.
- The available evidence also suggests it provided a response to him about some aspects of his complaint and invited him to place a record of his views about the assessments on his children’s file.
- The regulations allow for Council’s to decline to investigate a complaint under these procedures, where there is a risk of prejudicing court proceedings and given its explanation, together with the fact it signposted Mr X to us, there is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s decision-making to warrant further investigation by us.
- It is open to Mr X to resubmit his complaint to the Council after the proceedings have finished.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman