Decision Report 201201945

Summary

Mrs C's daughter and her classmates participated in a swimming lesson given by a council swimming instructor at a local leisure facility managed by a leisure company. Her daughter was asked to repeat a task in front of the class and was left upset. Mrs C and her husband pursued an initial informal complaint, then took the complaint fully through the council's complaints procedures.

Our investigation upheld their complaint that the council failed to deal with the complaint properly at the informal stage, but we made no recommendation as the council had recognised the deficiencies in the initial complaints handling, and had put in place several measures to avoid this happening again. We found that the council's handling of the formal complaint had been thorough and transparent and relevant witnesses had been interviewed. Although the timescale in which they responded had exceeded stated targets, on balance we did not find that the council had failed to deal with those complaints in line with their policy.