The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s fostering service. That is because the complaint is late.
The complaint
Mrs X complained about the Council’s fostering services treatment of her as a foster carer. She said it failed to provide appropriate respite and that it discriminated against her. She is unhappy in how the Council ended a foster care placement. She said the Council’s actions had harmed her physical and mental health. She said despite the Council’s suggested improvements she is not satisfied it will not make the same mistakes again.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
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. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended) 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: we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.
(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
Mrs X and her husband were approved as foster carers in 2019. The Council placed a young person into their care at the start of 2020. The Council ended that placement in November 2020. Mrs X subsequently complained about the support the Council provided to them as foster carers and its decision to end the placement.
Mrs X complained to the Ombudsman at the end of August 2022. Therefore, this is a late complaint and we should not investigate. We have discretion to set this aside where there are good reasons, however, in this case, I have decided not to exercise discretion as it was reasonable for Mrs X to have complained to us sooner.
However, even if the complaint was not late, we would not investigate. That is because there is nothing further we could add to the Council’s investigation. The Council has accepted there was fault in its communication with Mrs X and in the support it provided to her and husband. It has also apologised for not involving Mrs X in its decision to end the foster care placement. In its stage two response, the Council specified its learning from Mrs X’s complaint and set out recommendations it was undertaking to improve its fostering service. Therefore, there is nothing worthwhile to be achieved by further investigation.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because it is a late complaint.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman