Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the actions of the Council when Mr X was a child. The complaint is late and there is no good reason to exercise discretion to investigate it now.

The complaint

1. Mr X said he wanted to complain about the way the Council handled him going back to his childhood. He said the Council failed to act on the situation he was left in regarding his care, safety and education.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. 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)

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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. The correspondence Mr X sent us states he became an adult more than 20 years ago. The complaint is therefore late.
7. We may exercise discretion to investigate a late complaint if a person has not been aware of historic matters they now complain of until recently, or if they were prevented from complaining until recently.
8. In Mr X’s complaint, he states he was refused an education and not able to take GCSE examinations, and he says he has struggled as an adult to control his emotions or to form relationships. He would have been aware for many years of missed educational opportunities and that he did not take public examinations. It is also more likely than not that he would also have been aware of experiences he found upsetting during any periods when he was known to or cared for by social services. It would not have required the receipt of copies of his full records for Mr X to know of matters of poor care or lack of educational opportunities. And the discovery of additional details about those matters does not mean Mr X was previously unaware of the alleged poor care. Therefore, I do not find that Mr X’s recent request for his records means the matters complained of are recent.
9. I would not have expected Mr X to have complained as a child about what happened to him. We may investigate matters from childhood where a person is in the first few years of adulthood, particularly if they have been in care and lack the support network available to other young people. However, the matters Mr X complains of are over 20 years in the past, and it is reasonable to expect him to have complained to us much sooner.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is late and therefore is no good reason to exercise discretion to investigate the matters he complains of now.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman