Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about contact restrictions placed on the complainant by the Council. This is because there is no evidence of fault in how the Council dealt with the matter.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will call Mrs X, complains about the Council’s decision to restrict her communication with the Council under its unreasonable persistent complainants policy. Mrs X says the matter has caused her stress and is detrimental to her child.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Ombudsman investigates 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 may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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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 wrote to Mrs X about her contact with Council staff. The Council said it considered that the number of complaints and requests for information Mrs X had made were excessive and that if it continued it may take action under its unreasonable persistent complainants policy. It sent Mrs X a copy of the policy.
6. After further correspondence was sent by Mrs X, the Council made the decision to restrict her contact. It wrote to her to explain that she should only send correspondence to a dedicated email address, and explained to her under what circumstances it would respond to the emails. The Council told Mrs X about how and when the decision would be reviewed and about how she could appeal the decision.
7. Mrs X did submit an appeal which was considered by an Assistant Director. In its response the Council said that Mrs X’s appeal had been rejected and explained why. It again explained when the decision would be reviewed.
8. I will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint. This is because there is no evidence of fault in how the Council made the decision to restrict her contact or how it dealt with her appeal. We do not comment on judgements councils make, unless they are affected by fault in the decision-making process. In this case the Council followed the procedure correctly and properly communicated its decision to Mrs X. Mrs X was able to submit a review request against the decision, which was also properly considered and responded to, although was unsuccessful.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman