The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: Ms M complains about her dealings with the Council in connection with the care of her children. Ms M’s children are cared for by their paternal grandparents who hold a Special Guardianship Order. Decisions about the care of Ms M’s children, including the suitability of the carers and contact, have been made by the Court. Ms M could have raised her concerns in Court. Ms M’s complaint about an alleged incident in 2017 is out of time.
The complaint
Ms M complains about her dealings with the Council in connection with the care of her children. Ms M’s children are cared for by their paternal grandparents who hold a Special Guardianship Order. In particular, Ms M complains: the Council failed to investigate an alleged incident of sexualised behaviour and bruising suffered by Ms M’s daughter, G, in 2017. Ms M believes G has been a victim of sexual and physical abuse; the Council is biased in favour of the children’s paternal family; the children’s paternal family are unsuitable carers for her children and the care they provide is inadequate; the Council gave Ms M’s former partner a three-bedroom house so he can have the children to stay; the Council presented inaccurate and biased information in reports to Court and has failed to acknowledge the progress she has made; the Council has not supported contact between Ms M and her children. Ms M finds contact difficult as she now lives 200 miles from her children; the Council has supported the paternal family to deny Ms M access to her children and is now using the lack of contact to justify further reducing her access; her children no longer attend a Catholic school, which Ms M considers important for their identity.
Ms M wrote to me at length to explain her concerns. Ms M believes her daughter will one day disclose that she has been sexually abused.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these.
We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended) We cannot investigate a complaint about the start of court action or what happened in court. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5A, paragraph 1/3, as amended) We have the power to start or discontinue an investigation into a complaint within our jurisdiction. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we think the issues could reasonably be, or have been, raised within a court of law. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I have considered: information provided by Ms M and her representative; and information provided by the Council, including its responses to Ms M’s complaints.
I invited Ms M and her representative and the Council to comment on my draft decision.
What I found
Ms M’s children are cared for by their paternal grandparents who hold a Special Guardianship Order.
A Special Guardianship Order is a court order that gives a carer parental responsibility for a child. Special Guardians share parental responsibility with the child’s parents, but they can exercise their parental responsibility to the exclusion of all others.
Although the Council has had significant involvement in the lives of Ms M’s children, the decision they should live with their paternal grandparents under a Special Guardianship Order was made by the Court.
The Court has also made orders concerning contact between Ms M and her children.
The Ombudsman cannot investigate complaints about matters decided by the Court. This includes complaints about reports written by the Council for the Court.
The Court granted the children’s paternal grandparents parental responsibility for Ms M’s children. Ms M had an opportunity to raise her concerns about their suitability at the hearing. The Ombudsman cannot consider the matter now.
Ms M’s complaints about the alleged incident which happened in 2017 are late. She could also have raised the issue in Court. The Ombudsman will not consider the matter now.
As Special Guardians, the paternal grandparents – not the Council – are responsible for the children’s day-to-day care, including contact with Ms M. The Court has made Orders about contact and the Council has paid for supervised contact at a contact centre for 2 years. I understand the Court instructed the parties to seek legal advice if they could not reach an agreement about contact. As contact has been directed by the Courts, and parties can return to Court to resolve their differences, there are no grounds for the Ombudsman to consider the matter.
The Court has also made an order which requires Ms M to apply for permission before she can make any further applications in respect of her children. The Council says the order said Ms M should stop making complaints about professionals, negative posts on social media and unfounded allegations against her children’s paternal family.
Ms M complained about all of these issues to the Council.
The Council explained that it has no day-to-day involvement with Ms M’s children and she should contact their paternal grandparents directly with any questions regarding their care. The Council said it would not respond to her complaints about historic issues which had been raised many times before, including in Court. The Council said it intended to follow its procedures for ‘persistent complainants’. The Council said Ms M should contact its First Contact service if she had new concerns about the children.
I am satisfied the Council responded appropriately to Ms M’s complaints and will not investigate matters further. The complaint about the alleged incident in 2017 is out of time; and the Ombudsman cannot investigate complaints about matters decided by the Court. These include the suitability of paternal grandparents as carers, the reports the Council prepared for the Court, and complaints about contact. Ms M had an opportunity to raise her concerns about the 2017 incident and the paternal grandparents in Court. The Court has since placed restrictions on Ms M’s ability to apply for further orders. Taking all of these factors into consideration, I have decided to discontinue my investigation.
Final decision
I have discontinued my investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman