Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint the Council inappropriately used a report she produced. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault causing significant personal injustice. Also, it is unlikely an investigation by the Ombudsman could achieve anything more for Mrs X.

The complaint

2. The complainant, whom I shall call Mrs X, complains the Council inappropriately used a professional report she produced for a primary school. The report was about one of the school’s students.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe:

• it is unlikely we would find fault, or
• the fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• it is unlikely we could add to any previous investigation by the Council, or
• it is unlikely further investigation will lead to a different outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

4. We may investigate complaints made on behalf of someone else if they have given their consent. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26A(1), as amended)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

5. I considered Mrs X’s complaint to the Ombudsman and the information she provided. I also gave Mrs X the opportunity to comment on a draft statement before reaching a final decision on her complaint.

Back to top

What I found

6. Mrs X says the Council did not have her permission to use a report she produced for a primary school about one of its pupils. She is worried there could be damage to her professional reputation. The Council has accepted it should have approached Mrs X for her permission to use the report. She says the Council should reimburse the primary school which paid for the report. Mrs X wants the Council to make sure there are no other instances of it using such reports without the author’s permission.
7. The role of the Ombudsman is to look for administrative fault. We do not look at all the cases we receive and only investigate those we consider the most serious. In deciding whether to investigate a complaint we need to consider various tests. These include the injustice caused to the person complaining and what we can achieve.
8. It is clear Mrs X feels strongly about the issue at the heart of her complaint. But the Council has accepted it should have approached her before it used the report. It is therefore difficult to see what more an investigation by the Ombudsman could achieve. Mrs X is concerned there could be damage to her professional reputation. But the Ombudsman does not consider complaints about what might happen – we do not investigate speculative injustice. Mrs X says the Council should reimburse the school for the cost of the report. But because Mrs X does not have permission to complain on behalf of the school, this is not something we can consider. An investigation into Mrs X’s complaint is not therefore appropriate.

Back to top

Final decision

9. The Ombudsman will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault causing significant personal injustice. Also, it is unlikely an investigation by the Ombudsman could achieve anything more for Mrs X.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman