Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about information sent to Miss X when she complained to the Council. This is because the Council has said it will contact Miss X about her complaint. It is reasonable for Miss X to complete the Council’s own complaints process. An investigation at this time would not achieve anything more.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Miss X, complained about the information the Council sent her when she contacted it with concerns about several social workers. Miss X complained the Council had not sent appropriate guidance about how it would deal with her complaint.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint unless we are satisfied the organisation 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 organisation of the complaint and give it an opportunity to investigate and reply. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(5), section 34(B)6)
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 no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation. (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 the complainant and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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Final decision

6. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint. This is because the Council has said it will contact Miss X about her complaint. It is reasonable for Miss X to complete the Council’s own complaints process. An investigation by the Ombudsman could not achieve anything more at the current time. Miss X can come back to the Ombudsman once she has completed the Council’s own process. We could then consider her complaint and the Council’s response to decide if an investigation was appropriate.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman