The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this late complaint about Mrs X’s 1997 request to relocate her family member to a care home nearer her home. There is no good reason Mrs X did not complain sooner.
The complaint
Mrs X complains the Council reneged on its promise to move her family member to a residential care home closer to her home.
Mrs X says she spent 6 hours in total travelling time to visit her family member placed in a different county.
Mrs X explains she was suffering mental and physical health problems at the time. And she is seeking closure now.
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)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
The complaint concerns what happened in 1997. Mrs X was of the view in 1997 the Council had acted with fault.
The Council says it has checked its records and there are no details of this complaint.
We usually expect complainants to come to us within 12 months of the issue they complain about.
I have considered Mrs X’s reasons for not complaining. However, the problems she says she was caused in travelling could have caused her to complain at the time. I see no good reasons for why she did not raise these issues when they first arose and not twenty-seven years later. We will not now investigate this late complaint.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mrs X’s late complaint because there is not a good reason she did not complain sooner.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman