Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about the Council’s children’s services involvement with her when she was a child. This is because, given the passage of time, we do not consider there is a realistic prospect of reaching a sound, fair and meaningful decision.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains about the actions of the Council’s children’s services when she was a child. She says that the Council failed to safeguard her.

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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 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

4. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Miss X complained to the Council about historical issues relating to children’s services involvement with her dating back approximately 13 years.
7. The Council replied that it could not investigate because the complaint was made more than 12 months after the events.
8. While I recognise the issues raised by Miss X, the restriction outlined in paragraph 3 inserts a time limit for a member of the public to bring their complaint to the attention of the Ombudsman. Its intention is two-fold: to provide us with the best opportunity of arriving at a robust, evidence-based decision on complaints and to ensure fairness by enabling us to decline an investigation into historic matters, which could and should have formed the basis of a complaint far sooner.
9. The further away in time an investigation takes place from the events to be investigated, the more difficult it may be to establish the material facts with reasonable confidence. In older cases we are less likely to be able to gather sufficient evidence to reach a sound judgement. Even if some evidence is available, we would need to be particularly careful to ensure it is reliable and provides a full picture.
10. In many cases we cannot apply current standards, guidance, or professional expectations to historical situations. It is therefore likely to be more difficult to reach a firm and fair conclusion on whether there was fault.
11. In historical cases it is likely to be more difficult to achieve a meaningful remedy, given the length of time that has already passed, the difficulty in establishing causality over longer time periods, and changes in the situation of the parties.
12. I considered whether there are any good reasons to exercise our discretion and disapply the time limit in this case. It is my view however there would be practical limitations on our ability to investigate now, and we could not reach robust conclusions or achieve a meaningful conclusion or remedy.

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Final decision

13. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because given the passage of time, we do not consider there is a realistic prospect of reaching a sound, fair and meaningful decision.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman