Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s actions regarding Mr X’s child’s school attendance. Further investigation would not lead to a different outcome or achieve anything more for Mr X.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council wrongly prosecuted him for his daughter’s absence from school. He says the continued with the prosecution despite procedural and evidential flaws and the concerns he raised. Mr X says the situation has caused significant stress, anxiety and distress for both him and his family.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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:

• 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))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Mr X complained the Council continued prosecuting him despite concerns about procedural errors, inaccurate attendance records, and correspondence he says he did not receive. He also said his child was not of compulsory school age when the notice was issued.
6. The Council accepted there was an error in the dates, but the corrected dates confirmed she was of compulsory school age.
7. Although Mr X disagrees with the Council’s decision to prosecute him, the prosecution has been rescinded. Our involvement would not lead to a different outcome or achieve anything more.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because our involvement would not lead to a different outcome or achieve anything more for Mr X.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman