17 April 2009

Ms S Watson

Via email ([FOI #9278 email])

Our ref: CS/09/035/HJP

(Please quote our reference when contacting us)

If telephoning contact Hilary Pook on 020 7217 4734

or if using email send to: [email address]

Dear Ms Watson

Request for information

Thank you for your email of 16 April. I can now supply you with some information relating to social services complaints relating to children's services over the last 10 years against Camden Council.

The number of such complaints the Ombudsman has dealt with against the London Borough of Camden from April 1997 to March 2008 (statistics relating to 2008/09 are not yet available) is 48. The breakdown of how they were dealt with is as follows:

Premature complaints (ones that had not already been considered by the council) 15

Outside the Ombudsman's jurisdiction 9

No or insufficient evidence of maladministration 5

Ombudsman's discretion* 12

Local settlements 7

Total 48

* For example, the complainant withdrew their complaint, the complainant moved and we lost contact with them, the complainant decided to take court action instead, or there was insufficient injustice to warrant continuing the investigation.

You asked how many complaints were upheld. No reports were issued, so there were no formal findings of maladministration, but there were seven local settlements, where the complainants concerned will have received some sort of remedy (not necessarily financial). Of those seven local settlements, there were payments made of £50, £500, £550 and £250. Two remedies were not financial and the final one is too old to have details of the remedy recorded on our computer.

In your second email you clarified and gave examples of what you meant by `breaches of data complaints'. It would be unusual for the Ombudsman to investigate any complaints that were purely about inappropriate disclosure of personal data, as these would be breaches of the Data Protection Act and therefore more appropriately dealt with by the Information Commissioner. In any case, the details of what the complaints are about are not recorded on our computer database. We do not, therefore, hold any information on whether any of these 48 complaints concerned disclosure of personal data.

You made the point “Without this information how can it been seen that the LGO is monitoring and effectively governing and protecting those who have been damaged by such breaches.” This is not the Ombudsman's role. It is part of the role of the Information Commissioner to enforce and oversee the Data Protection Act.

This answers all the questions in your original email that I am able to answer, and concludes my response. I hope you find the information useful. If you feel I have not dealt properly with your request, you have the right to appeal and, should you wish to do so, I can supply a copy our internal complaints procedure. You also have the right to apply to the Information Commissioner to determine whether your request has been properly dealt with. You should note however that the Commissioner will not consider any complaint where you have not first exhausted our internal complaints process or where there has been undue delay in contacting him. You will be able to obtain further details of the Information Commissioner's role from the website on www.ico.gov.uk.

Yours sincerely

Hilary Pook

Hilary Pook (Ms)

Communications and Records Manager

LGO 01 (03/08)