Summary: Miss X complains about the Council’s handling of her complaint about the conduct of a Council member who Miss X says failed to provide help in respect of her family’s housing situation. The Ombudsman will not investigate as some of the complaint is outside his legal remit on time and in relation to the Council’s management of social housing. It is also unlikely he will find fault causing a significant injustice to Miss X or that an investigation will change the outcome of the complaint.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains the Council hasn’t properly considered several aspects of a complaint she made to it about the conduct of a Council member, who Miss X says failed in various ways to provide support and assistance to her family in respect of their housing situation. Miss X complains the Council did not respond to her complaints that, the Council member:
1. failed to help Miss X and her family in relation to their many housing and adult social care concerns;
2. failed to ensure an investigation is carried out into Council homes which are being left empty;
3. did not look into the financial loss to the Council from Council homes being left empty or update Miss X about this;
4. told Miss X to use a single point of contact at the Council when she knew one had not been set up;
5. failed to respond to Miss X’s emails of 19/9/2019 and 27/1/2020; and
6. has not provided an update from the Operational Director on the progress of Miss X’s case.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
3. 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’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe it is unlikely we would find fault, or it is unlikely further investigation will lead to a different outcome (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
4. We cannot question whether a council’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
5. We cannot investigate something that affects all or most of the people in a council’s area. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(7), as amended)
6. We cannot investigate complaints about the provision or management of social housing by a council acting as a registered social housing provider. (Local Government Act 1974, paragraph 5A schedule 5, as amended)
7. The Courts have said that we cannot investigate a complaint about any action by a council, concerning a matter which is itself out of our jurisdiction. (R (on the application of M) v Commissioner for Local Administration [2006] EHWCC 2847 (Admin))

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How I considered this complaint

8. I have considered what Miss X said in her complaint and the Council’s responses to it and I have taken account of the Council’s procedure for dealing with complaints about Member conduct. I have sent my draft decision on the complaint to Miss X for her comments and I have considered her response.

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What I found

9. Miss X complained to the Council in May 2020 about various aspects of a Council member’s conduct. Miss X was dissatisfied with the Council response to her complaint and asked for a review, which the Council carried out. Miss X complained to the Ombudsman in September 2020 about several issues which she considered were still outstanding after the Council’s review. These are, as follows:
10. Complaint a – Miss X complains the Council member has failed to take action to deal with and address her family’s many housing and adult social care concerns. This is in relation to what the Council member has done to contact Council officers and other members, and to arrange meetings, in order to advocate and make representations on the family’s behalf. The period complained about by Miss X was from 2014 to May 2020.
11. In the Council’s view, email records show regular contact between the Council member and Miss X, up to October 2017, when the Council gave Miss X a single point of contact at the Council. The Council concluded there was no evidence of a breach of the code of conduct by the Council member in this regard.
12. Complaint b - Miss X complains the Council member failed to work with colleagues to investigate how many Council homes are standing empty and to hold the Council to account for this.
13. Complaint c - Miss X complains the Council member failed to investigate what cost to the public purse arises from Council homes being left empty or to update Miss X about this.
14. Complaint d – Miss X complains that the Council Member told her to use a single point of contact at the Council when she knew one had not been set up.
15. In its initial complaint response, the Council said it was satisfied the Council member had been told in October 2017 that Miss X was to use a single point of contact at the Council to ensure she received accurate and timely updates. The Council member said she thought this also applied to communications she herself received. The Council advised Miss X that the Council member is not in a position to direct or control operational matters such as the efficiency of the single point of contact. In its view, the Council member has though supported the family by having discussions with council officers about the responsiveness of the single point of contact. The Council found no breach of the code of conduct in this regard.
16. In its review decision, the Council reiterated that the responsiveness of the single point of contact is a service issue and that it accepted the Council member’s representations that she acted on the advice from senior officers in relation to contact from Miss X. The Council again stated that no breach of the code of conduct had been found in respect of this aspect of the complaint.
17. Complaint e - Miss X complains the Council member had not responded to two emails she had sent her in July 2019 and January 2020.
18. In its initial response, the Council asked Miss X to re-send the emails for the Council member to consider, as she said she did not have them. Miss X did this but says she still received no response from the Council member.
19. The Council addressed this in its review of its decision. It said that the matters raised in these emails related to the operation of the single point of contact, so they had been referred to the service to be addressed and to provide an update to Miss X.
20. The Council had previously concluded that there had been no breach of the code of conduct by the Council member in relation to her responses to communications from Miss X. In its review decision, it said that these specific emails did not provide grounds for it to change its conclusion that there had been no breach.
21. Complaint f – Miss X complains she received no update from the service Operational director, following the Council’s review decision on her complaint, which said she would.
22. In its review decision, the Council said this was being dealt with via the Council’s corporate complaint procedure and that a response would be sent out to Miss X.

Analysis

23. Complaint a – much of this complaint falls outside our legal remit as it relates to events which took place more than 12 months ago. It is reasonable to expect Miss X to have complained to us sooner about historical issues relating to the Council member’s conduct and I can see no good reason to investigate now.
24. Notwithstanding this, the Council concluded there was no breach of the code of conduct by the Council member in this regard. In the absence of a specific indication of fault in the Council’s consideration of Miss X’s complaint, we cannot challenge the merits of its decision. Even if we did investigate, it is difficult to see that we could achieve any meaningful outcome in terms of the Council member’s involvement in responding to Miss X’s housing/social care needs. Any failings to properly responds to these needs, in terms of service provision, is the ultimate responsibility of the Council not the Council member.
25. Complaint b & c - we have no legal remit to investigate how the Council manages its housing stock. We also cannot investigate the impact a Council decision has on the public purse. All or most of the people in the Council area are affected by the level of Council revenue and the law says we cannot investigate such complaints.
26. As per para 7, as these matters are outside our jurisdiction, we also have no remit to investigate how the Council dealt with Miss X’s complaint about them.
27. Complaint d – in the Council’s view, the Council member’s actions were in line with the protocol put in place regarding the single point of contact and the issue was essentially a service matter, not under the control of the Council member. The Council found no breach of the code of conduct.
28. We can only challenge this decision if there is evidence of fault in the Council’s consideration. Based on what I have seen so far, the Council fully considered Miss X’s representations about this aspect of the complaint and made a decision it is entitled to. I have not seen indication of fault. We cannot investigate just because Miss X disagrees with the Council’s assessment.
29. Complaint e – the Council considered the points raised by Miss X and concluded there had been no breach of the code of conduct in this regard. Based on the information seen so far, there is no indication of fault in the Council’s consideration of this complaint. We cannot therefore challenge the merits of its decision on this.
30. Complaint f –this is essentially a new matter, not covered by the scope of this complaint. I will ask the Council to provide a response to Miss X about this, if it hasn’t done so already.

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Final decision

31. My decision is that the Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. The law says we cannot investigate how the Council manages its housing stock or complaints made late to us. From the information seen so far, there is no indication of fault in the way the Council dealt with other aspects of Miss X’s complaint. It is also unlikely any investigation by us would change the outcome of it or add to what the Council has already said.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman