The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s involvement with the complainant’s family which led to his children being adopted. This is because the complaint is late, and the law prevents us from investigating matters which have been considered in court. Also, we cannot achieve the outcome the complainant wants.
The complaint
The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mr X, complained about the Council’s involvement with his family dating back to 2011. Mr X said his children were adopted because of mistakes by the Council and its social workers. Mr X wants his children returned to his care.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
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) The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6)) 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) The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. We expect people to complain to us within twelve months of them becoming aware of a problem. We look at each complaint individually, and on its merits, considering the circumstances of each case. But we do not exercise discretion to accept a late complaint unless there are good reasons to do so. I do not consider that to be the case here. I see no reason why Mr X could not have complained much earlier and so the exception at paragraph 3 applies to his complaint.
But even if the complaint was not late it is unlikely we would investigate. We cannot consider complaints about matters decided in court or where it was reasonable for the person to take the matter to court. These exclusions apply to Mr X’s complaint so it is not one we can consider. The actions of the Council’s social workers could not be separated from matters which are outside our jurisdiction.
We also have no powers to return Mr X’s children to his custody. An investigation could not therefore achieve the outcome Mr X wants.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. This is because it is late, we cannot consider matters which have been decided in court, and we could not achieve the outcome Mr X wants.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman