Luton Borough Council (25 008 597)
Category : Children's care services > Other
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 22 Oct 2025
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about a social worker wrongly labelling him as a perpetrator of abuse. The complaint lies outside our jurisdiction because it is late and there are no good grounds to exercise discretion to consider it now so long after Mr X first became aware of the matter.
The complaint
- Mr X complains a social worker wrongly labelled him as a perpetrator of domestic abuse in 2021 despite him being the victim and about the impact of this.
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 effect 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 an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- 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)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr X complained to the Council about these matters in early 2022. It referred to the Council’s actions in 2021.
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. It lies outside our jurisdiction because it is late. The law says a complaint should be made to us within 12 months of the person affected first becoming aware of the matter. I see no good grounds to exercise discretion to consider it now, so long after Mr X first became aware of the matter.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. It lies outside our jurisdiction because it is late and there are no good reasons to exercise discretion to consider it now.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman