Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of her complaints. It would be disproportionate to investigate the Council’s complaint handling in isolation when we are investigating the substantive issue of her complaint separately.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains about the Council’s handling of her complaints regarding the Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) provision for her children, the conduct of a social worker and the Council’s data handling.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. 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))
4. Social Work England is the regulator for social workers. It can investigate concerns about social workers' fitness to practice.
5. The Information Commissioner's Office considers complaints about freedom of information. Its decision notices may be appealed to the First Tier Tribunal (Information Rights). So where we receive complaints about freedom of information, we normally consider it reasonable to expect the person to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner.

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
7. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

8. I will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s complaint handling in isolation because we are investigating her complaint regarding the DFG provision under a separate case.
9. It is reasonable to expect Mrs X to pursue her complaint about a social worker with Social Work England. It is better suited to review such matters.
10. Any complaints about the Council’s data handling are a matter for the ICO. It is reasonable to expect Mrs X to pursue this part of her complaint with the ICO which is the appropriate body to consider such issues.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because it would not be good use of public resources to look at the Council’s complaint handling in isolation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman