Miss B complained that a social worker employed by Bridgend County Borough Council (“the Council”) had disclosed personal information about her and her children to her former partner. This had enabled him to apply to court to seek contact to the children, causing her distress. She wanted answers about what had happened but she had been waiting for weeks for the Council to respond to her complaint.
The Ombudsman was concerned about the delay in responding to Miss B’s complaint, albeit would not himself be able to consider and resolve data breach allegations or child contact matters. Neverthelss, he could deal with the delay in complaint handling, which was within his remit. As an alternative to investigating that element of the complaint, he contacted the Council and sought its agreement to undertake the following actions to resolve the complaint. Both actions were to be completed within 1 month:
• To apologise in writing to Miss B for the delay in responding to the complaint.
• To provide its complaint response on the data breach allegation.