Summary: We will not investigate this complaint that the Council is at fault in refusing to accept that is has placed a looked after child with the complainant. This is because there is no evidence of fault on the Council’s part.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mrs X, complains that the Council is at fault in refusing to accept that it has placed a looked after child with her.

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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))

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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 has care of a child. The Council regards the placement of the child with her as a private arrangement. Mrs X says this is not the case. As a result of the Council’s position, she says the child is being denied support to which they are entitled.
6. Mrs X says the Council asked her to have care of the child. She describes the influence exerted on her by the Council as amounting to coercion. She says the Council offered to provide support, but it has not done so. She believes the child should be treated as voluntarily accommodated under Section 20 of the Children Act 1989.
7. The Council says that the child is not, and has not been, in its care. It says the option of returning the child to their father’s care is available and regarding the child as accommodated under Section 20 is not therefore appropriate. That being the case, it remains of the view that the care arrangement is a private one.
8. It is not for the Ombudsman to decide whether the placement is a private arrangement. That is a matter for the professional judgement of the Council’s officers. Our role is to take a view on whether there is evidence of fault on the Council’s part in reaching its decision. There is no such evidence. The Council’s position, set out in its correspondence with Mrs X, is clear and defensible.
9. In the absence of evidence of fault in the way the Council has reached its decision, the Ombudsman cannot criticise it, or intervene to substitute an alternative view.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because there is no evidence of fault on the Council’s part.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman