Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about support provided to care leavers as there is also no evidence of fault in the Council’s request for financial assistance from a charity.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains on behalf of a local charity. Mr X says the Council has wrongly asked the charity to pay for items for care leavers even though the Council has a duties towards them.
2. Mr X believes the Council is not fulfilling its legal duties to care leavers and is seeking to rely on charities to provide financial assistance it has a duty to provide.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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 fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. I cannot see evidence the Council withheld information about the care leavers circumstances from the charity and so it is unlikely we would find fault. It was also open to the charity to decline to provide financial assistance or seek further information from the Council before making any payments. Therefore, even if we were to find fault with the Council this has not caused the charity an injustice.

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Final decision

7. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we do not have consent from the persons who are primarily affected for him to make a complaint on their behalf. We will also not investigate because there is no evidence of fault by the Council and in any case Mr X and the charity have not been caused an injustice.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman