Summary: We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s actions leading to the removal of his child from his care more than 25 years ago. This is because the complaint is late with no good reasons to investigate it now.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about the Council’s handling of allegations against him over 25 years ago. He complains the Council:
• unlawfully removed his daughter from his care, denied him due process and manipulated records;
• abandoned his family and committed several human rights breaches; and
• placed him in unsuitable accommodation.
2. Mr X says these events destroyed his life and family and affected his mental health.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. 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 provider has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by Mr X.
6. I also considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. Mr X’s complaint concerns the Council’s actions from over 25 years ago, which makes it late. As per the exclusion in paragraph 4, we cannot investigate late complaints unless there are good reasons to do so.
8. In older cases like this we are less likely to be able to gather sufficient evidence to reach a sound judgement, establish causality or achieve any meaningful remedy. Given the length of time that has passed, and the changes in circumstances of those involved, it is unlikely an investigation could establish clearly enough what happened, or the effects of any alleged fault. It is not our role to carry out a holistic review of Mr X’s case, and Mr X could have complained to us much sooner.
9. Our role also does not extend to making decision on whether or not a council has breached the Human Rights Act; this is a matter for the courts. In any event, for the reasons set out above we could not reliably investigate Mr X’s complaint now.
10. We also cannot carry out any effective investigation into Mr X’s complaint about the suitability of his accommodation 25 years ago. This is something which it would have been reasonable for Mr X to complain about at the time, and which the Council may have been able to resolve had he done so. If Mr X believes his current accommodation is unsuitable, he can contact the Council’s housing team and ask for assistance or a suitability review.

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Final decision

11. We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is late with no good reason to investigate it now. It is in any event unlikely we could effectively investigate what happened, as more than 25 years have passed since the events he complains about.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman