London Borough of Waltham Forest (26 001 414)
Category : Children's care services > Other
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 04 May 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate X’s complaint about the governance of a school. X raised the complaint anonymously and there is no worthwhile outcome achievable because it is unlikely we could carry out an effective investigation.
The complaint
- X complains the Council failed to investigate their concerns about the governance of a school.
- X says this has caused them distress and a loss of confidence in the Council’s ability to handle school governance issues.
- X would like the Council to start an independent review and investigate their concerns.
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)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by X and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- X raised their complaint to the Council and to us anonymously. They explained why they preferred to be anonymous.
- The Local Government Act 1974 says a complaint about a matter can be made by a member of the public who claims to have suffered an injustice, or by a representative.
- We are not a whistleblowing authority and people do not have a reasonable expectation they can use our service anonymously.
- Our role is to investigate allegations of fault causing a person injustice. However, we are unlikely to be able to carry out an effective investigation on an anonymous complaint and so there is no worthwhile outcome achievable.
- As we cannot confirm who X is, we also cannot satisfy ourselves the tests in our Assessment Code have been met. We will therefore not exercise our discretion and investigate this complaint.
Final decision
- We will not investigate X’s complaint because they raised it anonymously and therefore it is unlikely we can carry out an effective investigation and so there is no worthwhile outcome achievable.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman