Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s actions in relation to Miss X’s daughter. This is because part of her complaint is late and other parts relate to matters which happened in court. Miss X has raised some more recent issues but the Council has not had an opportunity to investigate and respond.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains about the way the Council removed her daughter from her care in 2011. She is also unhappy about the Council’s role in revoking her Power of Attorney for her daughter and says the Council has failed to provide her daughter with proper support.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
3. We cannot investigate a complaint about the start of court action or what happened in court. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5A, paragraph 1/3, as amended)
4. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint unless we are satisfied the council knows about the complaint and has had an opportunity to investigate and reply. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to notify the council of the complaint and give it an opportunity to investigate and reply (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(5))

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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. Miss X complained to the Council about these issues 2017. The Council responded to her complaints about its decision to remove her daughter from her care and the revocation of her Power of Attorney and told her she could take her complaint further if she was unhappy with the Council’s response. Miss X did not complain to the Ombudsman about these issues until August 2021. Therefore this is a late complaint and we will not investigate.
8. We have discretion to set aside this restriction where we decide there are good reasons. In this case I have decided not to exercise discretion because it is reasonable to expect Miss X to have complained to us about these issues sooner.
9. We cannot investigate the complaint about the Court of Protection’s decision to revoke Miss X’s Power of Attorney for her daughter. This is because we cannot investigate what happened in court.
10. Miss X has raised more recent issues relating to support and care provided by the Council for her daughter. However, she has not raised these as a complaint with the Council first. We will not investigate this part of the complaint as the Council has not had an opportunity to investigate and reply. I see no good reason why the Council should not be given an opportunity to do so.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because it is a late complaint. We will also not investigate her complaint about the revocation of her Power of Attorney as we cannot investigate what happened in court
12. We will not investigate Miss X’s more recent complaints as the Council has not had an opportunity to investigate and respond first.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman