Cornwall Council (25 026 150)
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We uphold this complaint that the Council declined to issue a response to Mrs X’s complaint unless she first accepted a sum in settlement. The Council has agreed to resolve the matter by issuing the complaint response without pre-condition.
The complaint
- Mrs says the Council declined to issue a response to her complaint about her child’s special educational needs (SEN) unless she first accepted a sum offered as remedy.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
- Under the information sharing agreement between the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman and the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted), we will share this decision with Ofsted.
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
- I have not considered the substantive matter about which Mrs X complained to the Council. Her complaint to us was not about that, but about the Council’s response to her complaint. It will be for her to decide what to do after she has received the Council’s response to her complaint.
My assessment
- Mrs X has shown that she complained to the Council, and that it declined to issue a second stage response to her complaint unless she first accepted a sum offered as remedy for fault.
- If we were to investigate it is likely we would find fault causing Mrs X injustice, in that the Council unreasonably imposed a pre-condition to issuing a response to a complaint, leaving her no option but to approach us.
Agreed action
- We invited the Council to issue the second stage response to Mrs X’s complaint by 22 October 2026. The Council has agreed to resolve the complaint by doing so.
Final decision
- We have upheld this complaint. The Council has agreed to resolve the complaint early by providing a proportionate remedy for the injustice caused to Mrs X.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman