Summary: We will not investigate this complaint that the Council failed to act upon a safeguarding referral. This is because we could not add to the investigation carried out by the Council.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains that the Council failed to act when it received a safeguarding referral concerning her children in 2020.

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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 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 continue an investigation if we decide we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. Mrs X complained to the Council that it failed to act when receiving a safeguarding referral concerning her children. Mrs X provided the Council with an email from a police officer, which said that the referral had been made.
6. I will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint. The Council has reviewed the email from the police officer and reviewed its records but has found no evidence that the referral was received. It is highly unlikely an investigation would allow us to make sound findings about what happened to the referral, as I cannot say it is more likely than not that it wasn’t received or acted on because of fault by the Council. For this reason we could not add to the investigation already carried out by the Council.

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Final decision

7. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because we could not add to the investigation carried out by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman