Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s actions in response to a referral to the Local Authority Designated Officer because we would not achieve anything significant by doing so.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will refer to as Ms X, complains that the Council’s Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) was at fault in acting on a malicious and unwarranted referral.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect 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 an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Ms X complains that the LADO accepted and acted on a referral about her. She says the referral was vexatious and was made to intimidate her following her referral of concerns about the actions of Council social workers to Social Work England. The LADO found the referral to be unfounded.
6. Ms X contends that the matter did not meet the criteria for a LADO referral. She says the Council’s actions in response to it violated her human rights. She wants the record of the referral removed from her file.
7. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint because we would not achieve anything significant by doing so. The fact that the LADO found the referral to be unfounded exhausts the process. There are no grounds for us to investigate it, or to comment on the motivation for the referral. If Ms X believes the matter breached her human rights or caused her unremedied damages, it may be appropriate for her to pursue these matters in court.
8. The Ombudsman will not ask a council to remove information from its files. The most we will normally seek to do is to ask that a record of the complainant’s views are placed on the file. Ms X has made a formal complaint, so her views already form part of the record and there is nothing more for us to achieve,
9. If Ms X believes the Council’s records contain false information about her it is open to her to pursue her legal right of rectification. There is no role for the Ombudsman.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because we would not achieve anything significant by doing so.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman