The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council dealt with a safeguarding concern about a child. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault to justify our involvement.
The complaint
The complainant, who I will call Mrs X, complains about how the Council dealt with a safeguarding concern she raised about a child. She says the Council dismissed her concerns and failed to contact her to request additional information that she had.
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 we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation.
(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 raised a safeguarding concern about a child. The Council carried out an assessment considering information from the police, the child’s school, and the child’s parents. The Council concluded that there was insufficient evidence that the child was at harm and therefore no further action would be taken.
In responding to Mrs X’s complaint, the Council acknowledged that Mrs X had tried to provide additional information which had not been considered, and therefore it carried out a second assessment, during which it considered the new information and made additional enquiries. However, the same conclusion was reached that there was insufficient evidence of harm.
I will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council. It carried out appropriate checks during both assessments and satisfied itself that the child was not at risk of harm. This is a conclusion it is entitled to make and without fault the Ombudsman cannot question the merits of the outcome of the assessments.
Mrs X raised several other concerns relating to theses matters. However, the Council provided detailed responses to Mrs X’s concerns and for this reason it is unlikely we could add further to its investigation
Final decision
We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman