Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a child protection enquiry because investigation would not achieve the outcome the complainant is seeking, and there is another body better placed than the Ombudsman to consider the matter.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mrs X, complains that the Council was at fault in initiating and carrying out a child protection enquiry relating to her daughter, and in refusing her request for the removal of the enquiry report from its records.

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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.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Mrs X’s daughter was the subject of a safeguarding referral to the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub. A strategy meeting took the view that the threshold for a child protection enquiry under section 47 of the Children Act 1989 was met. The Council produced a section 47 report and subsequently decided to close its case.
6. Mrs X made a formal complaint to the Council about the decision to initiate the enquiry and about the actions of the Council’s social worker. The correspondence she has provided shows that her complaint was upheld in part.
7. Mrs X has asked the Council to delete the section 47 report from its records. She argues that it must comply with this request under the terms of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The Council has said that it will add a record of Mrs X’s views to its file but will not remove the report. The outcome Mrs X says she wants from her complaint to the Ombudsman is that the report is removed.
8. The Ombudsman will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint. This is because investigation would not result in the outcome she is seeking. It is not for us to express a view on whether the provisions of the GDPR mean the report must be removed. Mrs X may bring her disagreement with the Council’s position to the attention of the Information Commissioner’s Office, which is better placed than us to consider the matter.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because investigation would not achieve the outcome she is seeking, and she may bring the matter to the attention of the Information Commissioner’s Office.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman