Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a Council officer who stopped supporting Mr Y during disciplinary proceedings with a third party organisation. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault to justify investigating.

The complaint

1. Dr X complains that a Council officer stopped supporting his child, Mr Y who is an adult, during disciplinary proceedings with a third party organisation. Dr X complains the Council poorly handled its stage 2 investigation by rejecting the findings of a senior officer’s investigation, which partly upheld his complaint.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
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:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement

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

4. We cannot investigate a complaint if it is about a personnel issue. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5a, paragraph 4, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by the complainant.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. Dr X complains that a Council officer stopped supporting Mr Y during disciplinary proceedings with a third party organisation.
8. Based on the evidence I have seen, the Council and third party worked on a joint project, but Mr Y was employed by the third party.
9. In its complaint response, the Council explained to Dr X that it was not providing any adult social care services to Mr Y and it had no duty to support Mr Y in the disciplinary proceedings. Rather, it was the responsibility of the third party organisation, as Mr Y’s employers, to provide support. For these reasons, there is insufficient evidence of fault to justify investigating.
10. Insofar as Dr X may complain about the Council’s actions as an employer, we cannot consider this as we have no power to consider any complaints about personnel issues.
11. It is not proportionate for us to consider Dr X’s complaint about the Council’s complaint handling alone when we are not investigating the substantive part of the complaint.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate this complaint about a Council officer who stopped supporting Mr Y during disciplinary proceedings with a third party organisation. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault to justify investigating.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman