Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s concerns about the Council’s handling of his complaint about a penalty charge notice issued due to his child’s attendance at school. There is not enough evidence of fault and it is unlikely we could add anything to the Council’s response. Our intervention would be unlikely to lead to a different outcome, and we will not look at complaint handling as a standalone issue.

The complaint

1. Mr X is unhappy with the Council’s handling of his complaint about a penalty charge notice issued due to his child’s low attendance at school. Mr X says the Council made inappropriate comments in its response. Mr X is unhappy the Council has said further fines might be issued if his child’s attendance does not improve. Mr X says the Council’s actions have caused stress and inconvenience and he wants the Council to acknowledge its mistake.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
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, or
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

4. We cannot investigate complaints about what happens in schools. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5, paragraph 5(b), as amended)
5. It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue.

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
7. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

8. In its response to Mr X’s complaint the Council has dealt with his concerns about a penalty charge notice issued due to his child’s low attendance at school. The Council’s response explained a notice to improve attendance was issued followed by a penalty charge notice at the school’s request. The school then asked the Council to suspend action while it investigated Mr X’s concerns about what had happened in school. The Council then withdrew the penalty charge notice – again at the school’s request. The Council explained this was described as a goodwill gesture as his child’s absences were still considered unauthorised. The Council said that if were any further declines in absence a further penalty charge notice was likely.
9. We will not start an investigation into Mr X’s complaint.
10. The Council has said what happened and it is unlikely an investigation would deem any of the content to be inappropriate or that we could add anything to the Council’s response. Also, Mr X’s complaint flows from the original decision to issue a penalty charge notice. That involves a decision by his child’s school, and we have no powers to investigate complaints about the actions of schools. The penalty charge notice has now been withdrawn and so again, our involvement would not lead to a different outcome or achieve anything more. Mr X is concerned about the Council’s handling of his complaint, but it is not a good use of our resources to investigate complaint handling as a standalone issue. We will not therefore investigate.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault and it is unlikely we could add anything to the Council’s response or achieve a different outcome. It is not a good use of our resources to look at complaint handling as a standalone issue.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman