Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint his son was injured at school. That is because we have no jurisdiction to investigate what happens in schools. We will also not investigate his complaint about the Council’s communication with him or its decision to refer to a multi-agency domestic abuse forum. That is because these complaints are late.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained that his son, Y was injured whilst attending different schools. He said these events have caused Y trauma. Mr X is also unhappy with his contact with Children’s Social Care. He said it wrongly made a referral to a multi-agency domestic abuse forum. He said the allocated Social Worker did not contact him or invite him to meetings.
2. Mr X said the Council has failed to follow its procedures and provide a stage two response to his complaint.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. 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)
5. We cannot investigate most complaints about what happens in schools. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5, paragraph 5(2), as amended)
6. 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
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered information provided by the complainant.
8. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint that Y was injured by teachers whilst at school. Firstly, we have no jurisdiction to investigate what happens in school. Also, the events took place more than twelve months ago. Therefore, any complaints about the action taken by the Council in response to the incidents are late. It was reasonable for Mr X to have complained to us sooner if he was unhappy with how the Council had responded at the time.
10. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about his communication with a Social Worker or that it made a referral to a multi-agency domestic abuse forum. Both these complaints relate to the Council’s actions at the end of 2021. The Council emailed Mr X in September 2022 directing him to the Ombudsman. Mr X did not return to us until April 2023. Therefore, his complaints are late as it was reasonable for him to come to us sooner if he was unhappy with the Council’s final response to his complaint.
11. In any event, we would not investigate because the Council:
• has already apologised and allocated a new Social Worker. I am satisfied with the steps the Council has taken to resolve Mr X’s complaint. Further investigation by the Ombudsman would not lead to a different outcome.
• explained it made the referral to the multi-agency domestic abuse forum because of concerns it had around domestic abuse. Therefore, there is not enough evidence of fault to investigate this complaint further. Nor has the Council’s actions caused Mr X a significant injustice.
12. Although Mr X is unhappy the Council has not considered his complaint at stage two of its procedure, we will not investigate this complaint. The Council wrote to Mr X explaining why it would not consider his complaint further. There is not enough evidence of fault in how it made that decision to justify investigating. Additionally, it is not a good use of public resources to look at complaints about complaint procedures when we are not investigating the substantive matter.

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Final decision

13. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we have no jurisdiction to investigate what happens in school. Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s communication with him are late.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman