The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a social worker telling Mr X to inform his employer about a child protection matter. The complaint is late, and there is no good reason to exercise discretion to investigate it now. We also could not achieve the outcome Mr X is seeking even if the complaint were not late.
The complaint
Mr X said a social worker forcefully told him to tell his employer about a child protection matter. He said it caused him serious distress and meant he disengaged with social services, which then affected his ability to commence legal proceedings against his ex-partner. He said he wanted compensation and an apology from the Council’s chief executive.
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 has done. (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 cannot achieve the outcome someone wants. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6)) The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
The matter complained of dates from September 2020. The documents I have seen show Mr X complained to the Council in April 2022 and to us in September 2022. The complaint is therefore late.
We will not usually investigate late complaints. However, where a person was unaware of a matter until later, or where they were prevented from complaining sooner, we may exercise discretion to investigate the late matter. Where a person contacts us and we advise them to wait or to complete another process first, we usually discount the time that takes, provided they return to us promptly afterwards. Neither reason applies here. Mr X would have been aware of the matter complained of because it would have involved what was said by a social worker to him. He was able to begin legal proceedings in 2021, and there is no good reason to assume he would have been unable to contact us much sooner.
However, even if the complaint were not late, it is unlikely we could achieve the outcome Mr X is seeking. The Council has accepted the advice the social worker gave him was wrong. While such advice would clearly have been worrying for him, we could not establish a causal link to him disengaging with the Council and not starting a legal case against his former partner. Mr X is looking for compensation and a personal apology from the Council’s chief executive. A court would be better placed to deliver the former, and we would regard the Council’s corporate apology as sufficient.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is late and there is no good reason to investigate it now.
Even if that were not so, investigation by us would be unlikely to lead to the outcome Mr X is seeking, and a court would be better placed to consider a claim for compensation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman