Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council's decision to install mixed-sex changing facilities at a leisure centre. This is because further investigation is unlikely to find evidence of fault in the way the Council reached its decision.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains the Council is refurbishing a leisure centre she uses and has decided to provide mixed-sex changing facilities for the swimming pool. She says mixed-sex changing rooms present risks to the privacy, dignity and safety of women and girls, and as a user of the pool she would not feel safe or comfortable using them. Miss X wants the Council to reconsider its decision and provide single-sex changing facilities instead.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word fault to refer to these. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)

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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. The Council considered Miss X's concerns about the proposed mixed-sex changing facilities. It reviewed information from the design stage, statutory consultees and an Equality Impact Assessment. The Council said the changing area had been designed in accordance with Sport England guidance and would include individual or family-sized lockable changing cubicles with anti-peep rails. It also said the leisure centre operator would incorporate relevant safeguarding measures and guidance aimed at helping women and girls feel safer.
6. The Ombudsman is not an appeal body. This means we do not take a second look at a decision to decide if it was wrong. Instead, we look at the processes an organisation followed to make its decision. If we consider it followed those processes correctly, we cannot question whether the decision was right or wrong, regardless of whether someone disagrees with the decision the organisation made.
7. Based on the evidence I have seen, the Council considered Miss X's concerns about its decision to provide mixed-sex changing facilities and explained the reasons for its decision, including the measures it is putting in place to mitigate the risks she believes they pose. This was a decision the Council was entitled to make. While I understand Miss X disagrees with the decision, disagreement alone is not evidence of fault.
8. We will not investigate Miss X's complaint because further investigation is unlikely to find evidence of fault in the way the Council reached its decision.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Miss X's complaint because further investigation is unlikely to find evidence of fault in the way the Council reached its decision.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman