Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council dealt with Mrs X’s safeguarding concerns. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains that the Council failed to act after she raised safeguarding concerns about her child. Mrs X says the Council’s actions meant her child suffered harm.

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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 there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
3. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

6. Mr X contacted the Council on two occasions to report safeguarding concerns about her child.
7. In the Council’s complaint response, it said on receipt of her first concern it spoke to Mrs X, visited her child at their home, spoke with her child’s father and spoke with her child’s school. The Council concluded that the threshold for further involvement had not been met.
8. The Council said that upon receipt of Mrs X’s second concern it contacted her child’s father and contacted her child’s school. It spoke to a counsellor he was seeing and found there to be no concerns. The Council advised Mrs X to seek legal advice over concerns she had raised about the ongoing care arrangements for her child.
9. I will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault in how it made its decisions to take no further action in response to Mrs X’s concerns. It considered relevant information and made appropriate checks before making its decisions. In the absence of fault we cannot question the Council’s decision that the threshold for further involvement had not been met.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman