Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s response to a safeguarding matter. The Council has already investigated the matter, and further investigation would not lead to a significantly different outcome for X.

The complaint

1. X complains about the Council’s response to an incident involving another resident who was staying a refuge they were also resident at. X says the managers at the refuge did not do enough to prevent the incident occurring and its response during and after the incident was poor. X says they no longer feel safe there.
2. X is also unhappy they were signposted to the wrong Ombudsman scheme, and this delayed their complaint response.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

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

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. X witnessed an incident at a refuge involving another resident. They initially complained to the organisation who managed the refuge, who were also providing services on behalf of the Council. They subsequently raised a complaint with the Council, unhappy with the response the organisation provided.
6. The Council explained it had considered X’s complaint but was unable to fully detail all the actions that had occurred before the incident. It said this was because that was private information, affecting another person, and thus X was not entitled to have this information.
7. X has now had a response from both the organisation and the Council, which set out how it considered the events on the day of the incident. It explained how it liaised with the appropriate emergency responders to ensure the other person was supported. It also set out how it supported X and other residents after the incident. Finally, it said it would review the existing on-call arrangements for staff responsible for managing the refuge.
8. These actions are appropriate and further investigation by us would not lead to a significantly different outcome for X, and so I will not investigate.
9. Nor will I investigate the way X’s complaint was handled, including who they were signposted to. It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaint handling where we are not looking at the substantive issue.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate X’s complaint because further investigation would not lead to a significantly different outcome.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman