Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about an assessment carried out by the Council. Were we to investigate, we would be unlikely to find fault in the way the Council operated the statutory complaint process in considering the complaint about this matter.

The complaint

1. Mr X says the Council failed to properly assess his family’s care needs. He wants it to re-assess.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. We do not normally investigate matters subject to the statutory three-stage procedure for children’s social care complaints unless there is evidence of fault in the way it was conducted, or of a failure to implement recommendations made.
6. In this case, the Council operated all three stages of the procedure. The second stage, an investigation, overseen by a person independent of the Council, had access to records, carried out interviews, and reached conclusions about the assessment of the family’s needs the Council had carried out. The third stage, a panel which examined the conduct of the investigation, made minor recommendations about Council practice in carrying out assessments. These essentially concerned good practice, and neither of the final two stages found the assessment itself was significantly flawed. The Council accepted the recommendations, though with comments about what was possible due to matters such as consent.

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Final decision

7. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because doing so would be unlikely to lead to a finding of fault in the way the Council operated the statutory complaints process for children’s social care complaints.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman