London Borough of Camden (25 023 675)
Category : Children's care services > Other
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 09 Aug 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council's handling of arrangements for her child’s short breaks provision. Any injustice is not significant enough to warrant our involvement.
The complaint
- Ms X complains about the Council’s handling of the arrangements for her child’s short breaks provision. She says a failure to sufficiently plan in advance is causing distress and uncertainty. She also complains about poor complaints handling. She wants the Council to improve its processes and confirm forward bookings with her ahead of time.
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 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:
- any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
- further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- We will not investigate this complaint. Although the Council has acknowledged a communication error with the service provider regarding the arrangements for Ms X’s child, the Council rectified its error to ensure the service was in place. Ms X’s child received the short breaks provision. There is not enough outstanding injustice to warrant our involvement.
- Ms X also complains about the Council’s complaints handling. We will not investigate this as it is not a proportionate use of our resources to consider complaints handling where we decide not to investigate the substantive matter.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because there is not enough outstanding injustice to warrant our involvement.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman