The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about information the Council provided the family court. That is because we have no jurisdiction to investigate complaints about the commencement of court proceedings or what happened in court.
The complaint
Ms X complained the Council provided inaccurate information to the family court. She said that she had experienced domestic abuse from her ex-partner, Mr W and the information provided by the Council could have put her and her child, Y at risk. She also said the Council delayed in dealing with her complaint and that had resulted in three years of stress. She wants an apology and financial remedy from the Council.
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) 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 courts have said we can decide not to investigate a complaint about any action by a council concerning a matter which is outside our jurisdiction. (R (on the application of M) v Commissioner for Local Administration [2006] EHWCC 2847 (Admin))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
The Council completed a child and family assessment of Ms X and Y in 2019. Ms X asked the Council not to tell Y’s father about its assessment. It agreed not to.
Ms X and Mr W were going through private family court proceedings around child contact. As part of those proceedings, the Court asked for a copy of its child and family assessment. The Council wrote to the Court with a copy of the assessment. It wrote a covering letter stating it had not shared the assessment with Mr W as Ms X had refused to provide his contact details.
Ms X complained to the Council in January 2021. She said it had provided inaccurate information to the family court about her refusing to provide Mr W’s contact details. The Council did not initially uphold her complaint. However, it sent a revised letter to the Court in June 2021. In that letter it said it did not have evidence to support what it had previously written, but the social worker had believed that was the case based on information provided.
Ms X complained further at the start of 2022. The Council apologised for delays in its complaint handling and offered £100 for the time and trouble that caused. The Council said Ms X and the social worker had different views around the sharing of its assessment with Mr W. It said its case records did not support either the social worker’s, or Ms X’s view, therefore, it could not make a finding on what had happened. It said it had provided further guidance to social workers about case recording.
Although Ms X is unhappy with the Council’s response, we will not investigate this complaint. This is because we have no jurisdiction to investigate what happens in court. That includes information provided to the court by the Council that is used in proceedings.
Separate to the court proceedings, the Council accepted its case recording was not sufficient. However, we will not investigate this because: any injustice arising from this fault is directly linked to the information the Council provided to the court and is therefore outside our jurisdiction; and it is a late complaint as the events Ms X complained of happened more than twelve months ago.
We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about delays in the complaint handling process as it is not a good use of public money to investigate complaint procedures where we cannot consider the substantive matter.
Final decision
We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because we have no jurisdiction to investigate what happens in court.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman