The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint that the Council delayed considering a complaint under the statutory complaints procedure for complaints about children’s services. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.
The complaint
The complainants, who I will call Miss X and Mr & Mrs Z, complain that the Council have delayed considering their complaint at stage two of the statutory children’s complaints procedure.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
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, or any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
The Council issued a stage one response in late January. Dissatisfied, Mrs Z asked the Council to escalate the complaint to stage two, saying that not all issues raised were considered at stage one.
The Council allocated the complaint to an Independent Officer (IO) to investigate. The IO met virtually with the complainants to discuss their complaint. The IO then compiled two statements of complaint which were sent to the complainants, but agreement could not be agreed about the scope of the complaint. The IO gave the complainants a final opportunity to agree the statement of complaint, but as they did not the IO decided to proceed with their investigation. The Council expects the IO’s investigation to be complete next week and will issue its stage two decision shortly after.
I will not investigate this complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council. Mrs Z’s reason for requesting progression to stage two was because she did not feel that all points had been addressed at stage one. There were a large number of issues raised and the IO clearly did not feel they could proceed without gaining a clearer understanding of the complaint, and therefore decided to try to agree a statement of complaint with the complainants. Whilst this did mean that there has been a delay in providing the complainants with a response, I am satisfied that the Council have justified why it took this approach.
Final decision
We will not investigate this complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman