Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s failure to deal with the complainant’s concerns. The complaint is late and there are no good reasons for us to exercise discretion to consider it now.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains the Council failed to address issues of bullying, safeguarding failures, and concerns about her son’s mental health when he attended school.
2. She says this affected his mental health and forced him to withdraw from school. She says this then meant he missed his free school meal entitlement while he was out of school.

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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 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)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by the complainant.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. Ms X complains about the Council’s failure to deal with matters which occurred while her son was at school and while he was out of school up until mid-2024.
8. We will not investigate this complaint because it is late. The matters Ms X complains about happened more than 12 months ago. We consider there are no good reasons for us to exercise discretion to consider this complaint.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because it is late and there are no good reasons for us to exercise discretion to consider it now.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman