Oxfordshire County Council (24 008 777)
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about Children’s Services. That is because the complaint is late.
The complaint
- Miss X complained about the support provided by Children’s Services between 2009 and 2015. She said the Council failed to assess her ex-partners behaviour properly and a Council Officer provided incorrect information as part of family court proceedings. Miss X said the Council’s actions had caused her harm.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- 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)
- 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)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- We will not investigate Miss X’s complaints for the following reasons:
- The events that Miss X complains about took place more than 12 months ago. Therefore, her complaints are late, and we should not investigate. 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 Miss X could have complained sooner.
- We cannot investigate what happened in Court. Therefore, we cannot consider her complaint about the information the Council presented to the Court.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because it is late.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman