Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s involvement with the complainants family. This is because it is unlikely we could add to the investigation already carried out by the Council.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will call Miss X, complains about how a number of council departments dealt with her family after she moved to the area in 2019.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Ombudsman investigates 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 may decide not to continue with 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,

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. In 2019, Miss X moved to the Council’s area with her four children. She complains about the actions of the Council’s Children’s with Disabilities, Single Assessment and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) teams in relation to her family.
6. Miss X’s complaint was considered under the three stage statutory complaints procedure for children’s complaints. At stage two of the process the Independent Officer, Independent Person and Miss X agreed that 47 individual complaint elements would be investigated.
7. At stage three of the process, each of the complaint elements were considered by an independent panel. Records from the meeting show that Miss X was able to speak at the hearing and that the panel were able to ask questions about the complaint.
8. Council has fully accepted the findings of the panel and recommendations, including where it has found to be at fault.
9. As the complaint has completed the statutory complaint procedure, the question for the Ombudsman is whether it is likely that investigation by us would add anything significant, or lead to a different outcome. Miss X may disagree with the outcome of the complaint process, but that does not mean there is fault in the way the matter was considered.
10. The complaint documents show that the complaint was subject to considerable scrutiny throughout the process, and that Miss X was able to participate fully. The findings are comprehensive and defensible and there is no indication of fault in the way they were made. Where fault has been found suitable recommendations have been made and implemented. For these reasons we cannot add anything further to the Council’s investigation and will not investigate Miss X’s complaint.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because there is no evidence of fault in how the Council considered her complaint and we therefore cannot add anything further to its investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman