The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about a Council’s decision to de register her as a foster carer. It is reasonable to expect her to have used the Independent Review Mechanism.
The complaint
The complainant, whom I shall call Mrs X, disagrees with the Council’s decision to refer her registration to its fostering panel.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone can appeal to a government minister. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to appeal. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(b), as amended) We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect 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 an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Mrs X and the Council’s fostering panel decision letter.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mrs X says that after ten years, she decided to resign as a foster carer. She says the Council then referred her case to its fostering panel. It met in June 2022. It decided to deregister her. It then sent her a ‘qualifying determination letter’. This explained she had a right of appeal to the Independent Review Mechanism (IRM).
Regulations agreed by Parliament provide for a foster carer an appeal to the Secretary of State of a decision to deregister. The IRM is that process. The Council notified her of that IRM appeal process. We usually expect complainants to use the IRM and I see no reason to disapply that in this case.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because it is reasonable to have expected her to appeal to the IRM.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman