Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s actions regarding the complainant’s involvement with his granddaughter, a looked after child. This is because the injustice is not significant enough to justify our investigation.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I shall call Mr X, is unhappy about the way the Council involved him with a decision about a proposed school move for his granddaughter, who is a looked after child.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe that any fault did not cause injustice significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I have considered the information Mr X has sent us about the complaint, including his correspondence with the Council and its response. I also sent Mr X a copy of the draft decision for his comments.

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What I found

4. In October 2019 the Council invited Mr X to attend a meeting about a proposed decision for his granddaughter who is a looked after child. He was sent a questionnaire and asked to complete this and bring it to the meeting. He has told us that when he attended the meeting he found out the decision had already been made.
5. He complained to the Council. He said there was no point inviting him to the meeting if the decision had already been made and it had wasted his time and money.
6. In reply the Council said the complaint was about a service provided to the looked after child and he wasn’t best placed to complain about the service the child received.
7. I do not agree that Mr X’s complaint is about the service to the child. It appears to be a complaint about the way the Council has dealt with him regarding the meeting, which he attended at its invitation with the information he had been asked to provide.
8. We can consider the impact on Mr X of his complaint about the meeting in November 2019.
9. I can appreciate Mr X’s frustration if the decision had been taken before the meeting. He had taken the time and trouble to attend and provide information on the understanding it would be considered before a decision was made. But I do not consider the inconvenience this caused Mr X is significant enough injustice to justify our further involvement.
10. Although Mr X feels he has been caused significant injustice over a period of time due to previous complaints about the Council’s conduct and recording of its meetings with him regarding his granddaughter, in 2017 and 2018, we will only consider the impact of his current complaint.

final decision

11. The Ombudsman should not investigate this complaint. This is because the claimed injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman