Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint that the Council breached her statutory rights. We have not seen enough evidence of fault to justify a further investigation.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains the Council breached her statutory rights by blocking her access to the statutory complaint procedure for Children’s Services.
2. Mrs X said she has health issues that have resulted in her making more complaints, but the Council has ignored and undermined her. She said the Council should accept fault and listen to what complainants are saying.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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

4. I considered information provided by Mrs X and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. We will not investigate Mrs X complaint because we have not seen enough evidence of fault to justify an investigation.
7. The Council advised Mrs X she is not blocked from making a complaint as she has full access to its complaint processes. It said it is currently progressing two of her complaints, and it will consider any new complaints she makes.
8. The Council also reassured Mrs X that it values her feedback but asked her to send all non-urgent queries to the Customer Care email address.
9. The Council also asked Mrs X to contact her allocated social work team instead of the Customer Care team for any queries that are for the social work team.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because we have not seen enough evidence of fault to justify a further investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman