The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about inaccurate information in a child and family assessment and the Council’s handling of her complaint about the matter. The Information Commissioner’s Office is better placed to consider the substantive matter and it is not a good use of our resources to investigate complaints handling on its own.
The complaint
Ms X says a child and family assessment completed in April 2025 contains inaccurate information which the Council has refused to correct. She also complains about how the has handled her complaint about the matter. She wants the Council to correct the inaccurate information in its records, apologise, provide a financial remedy for the distress caused and improve its complaints handling.
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: we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants, or there is another body better placed to consider this complaint.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
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 Information commissioner’s Office (ICO) is the UK’s independent regulator for Information rights and data protection matters. It considers complaints about the accuracy of data and an organisation’s response to requests for corrections.
We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the accuracy of the Council’s records. The Council is currently considering her request for corrections to be made to the child and family assessment. If Ms X is unhappy with the Council’s decision regarding this matter or the Council does not respond to her request, the ICO is better placed to consider a complaint about this. We could not require the Council’s to rectify its records as Ms X wants, only the ICO could achieve this.
We will also not investigate the Council’s handling of her complaint. It is not a good use of resources to investigate complaints handling when we decide not to investigate the substantive matter.
Final decision
We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because the Information Commissioner’s Office is better placed to consider a complaint about correction of records and it is not a good use of our resources to investigate complaints handling where we are not investigating the substantive matter.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman