Mrs A complained that the Council had failed to ensure a safeguarding complaint she made in November 2023 following harm to her child at his primary school was fully investigated and responded to.
The school had declined to investigate her complaint as it was of the view that it was substantially the same as an earlier complaint that Mrs A had made that it had investigated. She said the Council had allowed the school in question to circumvent a proper and robust complaint process. She said this meant she did not get any answers about why her child had been harmed.
The Ombudsman was concerned that whilst thematically there were similarities between the two complaints Mrs A had made, they were sufficiently distinct so that the Council’s conclusion that the complaints were substantially the same was unreasonable and not in accordance with the relevant Welsh Government guidance.
As an early resolution of this complaint, and instead of undertaking an investigation, the Ombudsman sought and gained the Council’s agreement to ask the school, within 3 months, to reconsider its position with respect to Mrs A’s complaint of November 2023.