The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint that a Council employee was abusive to Mr X during a telephone call. This is because any remaining injustice caused to Mr X is not sufficient to justify our involvement and we cannot achieve the outcome he seeks.
The complaint
Mr X complained a Council staff member was abusive to him when he called the Council with a query. Mr X complained this made him feel humiliated and belittled. Mr X wants the staff member in question to write a letter of apology to him and for the Council to confirm if it has taken disciplinary action against him. Mr X also complained a manger said he would call him to discuss the matter, but they did not do this.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
We investigate 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 continue an investigation if we decide any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B)) When we find fault, we can recommend remedies for significant personal injustice, or to prevent future injustice, caused by that fault. We look at organisational fault, not individual professional competence. Decisions about individual’s fitness to practice or work are for the organisations concerned, and for professional regulators, not the Ombudsman. (Local Government Act 1974, s26(1) and s26A(1) as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
In its complaint responses to Mr X, the Council apologised to him for what had taken place and confirmed the staff member in question had been spoken to, to ensure calls would be dealt with appropriately going forward. The Council advised it could not give share with Mr X the details of any disciplinary proceedings the staff member might be subject to.
While I recognise that Mr X remains upset, from our perspective, as the Council apologised and confirmed what action it had taken in response to Mr X’s complaint, there is insufficient remaining injustice caused to Mr X to justify our further involvement. We have limited resources and must use them carefully.
We also cannot achieve the outcome Mr X seeks as we cannot become involved in the competence or otherwise of individual staff members at the Council or recommend the Council discloses the personal, private information of those staff members, to complainants.
While it would have been preferable for a promised call to have been made, I do not consider that this adds to the injustice remaining to Mr X to a degree to warrant our involvement.
For these reasons, we will not investigate.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient remaining injustice caused to him and we cannot achieve the outcome he seeks.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman