Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision to restrict the complainants contact under its unreasonable behaviour policy. This is because the injustice caused is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council has not followed its unreasonable behaviour policy correctly before restricting his contact.
2. He says this has prevented him from being able to resolve his concerns about his children’s education.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. 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
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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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. In 2025 the Council wrote to Mr X under its unreasonable behaviour policy and restricted his contact to one Council email address. Mr X complained this was not in line with the Council’s policy.
8. We will not investigate this complaint as there is insufficient injustice to justify our involvement. While the Council limited Mr X’s contact, he could still contact the Council to discuss his children’s education using the email address he had been provided.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the injustice is not sufficient to justify our involvement.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman