Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council's handling of a referral for support services and Mr X's involvement in services provided to his child. This is because the Council has already investigated and remedied the fault it identified, and there is not enough evidence of fault to justify further investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council failed to process a referral he made for support services. He says the Council did not contact him, despite later confirming it had received the referral. He says he was excluded from involvement in services provided to his child, despite having parental responsibility. He says he was not told which service was involved. He also complains the Council redirected parts of his complaint to another organisation. He says these issues caused distress and remain unresolved.

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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, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

3. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
4. We will not usually investigate complaint handling if we are not investigating the rest of the complaint. This is because there is not usually enough injustice to justify us doing so. We collect information about particularly poor complaint handling practice and report this back to organisations. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), section 34B(8))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

7. Mr X complained the Council failed to process a referral he made for support services. He also complained he was not involved in services provided to his child despite having parental responsibility. He was not told which service was involved, and that the Council redirected parts of his complaint to another organisation.
8. The Council investigated the complaint through its complaints procedure. At Stage two, it accepted it had received Mr X's referral but failed to process it and failed to contact him. The Council upheld that part of the complaint and apologised. It also explained that practice had changed and all contacts into the service now receive management oversight when they are received. The Council has therefore acknowledged the fault and taken action to address it. We will not investigate this aspect of the complaint as we are unlikely to achieve a different outcome by further investigation.
9. Mr X remains dissatisfied because he says he was excluded from involvement in services provided to his child and was not told which service was involved. He says these issues remain unresolved.
10. The Ombudsman is not an appeal body. Our role is to consider whether there is evidence the Council failed to follow the correct administrative process when reaching its decisions. We have considered the information provided by the Council about these matters. We have seen insufficient evidence of fault in the Council's decision-making process to justify further investigation. Therefore, we will not investigate this aspect of the complaint.
11. Finally, we will not investigate how the Council dealt with Mr X's complaints. It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaint handling where we are not investigating the substantive issues behind the complaint.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Mr X's complaint because the Council has already investigated, accepted and remedied the fault it identified. Further investigation is unlikely to achieve a different outcome, and there is insufficient evidence of fault in the remaining issues.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman