Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about poor communication from the Council. This is because this alone has not caused Mrs X a significant enough injustice to justify our involvement.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains about poor communication from the Council between September 2022 and July 2023.

Back to top

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:

• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organization.

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

3. 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)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

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

Back to top

My assessment

6. I will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint. She has made it clear that she is not complaining about the substantive issues that she was communicating about with the Council as these are subject to separate complaints. Instead, Mrs X is complaining about how Council staff communicated with her during this period.
7. I will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint. Whilst I acknowledge that poor communication can cause a certain level of frustration, I do not consider that this alone has caused Mrs X a significant enough injustice to warrant our involvement.
8. Furthermore, some of the issues happened too long ago and I see no good reason why Mrs X could not have complained to us about them sooner. Also, even if we were to investigate recent issues, it is unlikely we could add to the investigation carried out by the Council. This is because staff members have left the Council, and it has apologised where evidence could be found of poor communication.

Back to top

Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because the issues raised have not caused her a significant enough injustice.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman