The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. This is because an investigation by this office could not add to the response already provided by the Council which explains the ongoing private court proceedings need to conclude before it can consider his complaint.
The complaint
The complainant, whom I shall call Mr X, complains about the Council’s actions during its child protection involvement with his family.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended) We do not start an investigation if we decide we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6)) The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
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)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mr X complained to the Council about its actions in relation to its current child protection involvement with his family.
The Council told Mr X it could not consider his complaint because there are ongoing private family court proceedings and it could be prejudicial to the proceedings to consider the complaint before the court proceedings have concluded. It told Mr X it can consider his complaint once the court proceedings have concluded.
In response to our initial enquiries the Council told us it has been ordered by the court to file a Section 7 report in advance of the next hearing which is scheduled for later this year.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. This is because an investigation by this office could not add to the Council’s response which explains it will not consider his complaint until the court proceedings have concluded, and the reason for this. There is no sign of fault in this approach.
If Mr X remains dissatisfied with the Council’s response to his complaint following the court proceedings then he can ask us to consider it to see if it is a matter we can and should investigate. However, the law prevents us from investigating complaints about matters that are being, or have been, considered in court proceedings. We have no discretion to do so.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman