The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Miss B’s complaint about a social worker’s conduct and the information they provided as part of court proceedings. This is because the complaint concerns matters which have been considered in court or are closely related to those matters. We will also not investigate Miss B’s complaint the care planning for her children is not following the court’s orders. This is because she needs to complete the Council’s complaints procedure before we can consider it.
The complaint
Miss B complains a social worker provided false information to the court in court proceedings. And her children are now in the Council’s care. She says this has impacted her mentally and emotionally, and she wants the false information correcting, to reflect accurate findings.
Miss B also complains the care planning for her children is not following the court’s orders, following court proceedings which ended in July 2023.
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 have the power to start or end an investigation into a complaint about actions the law allows us to investigate. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we think the issues could reasonably be, or have been mentioned as part of the legal proceedings regarding a closely related matter. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8), as amended, section 34(B)) 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.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Miss B’s children were the subject of court proceedings about their care. She says that their social worker provided false information to the court, and the children are in the Council’s care because of this. She says this has mentally and emotionally impacted her, and she feels traumatised.
Miss B complained about this to the Council. The Council told her it will not be considering her complaint further. They said the complaints procedure cannot change a court decision, and it cannot investigate matters which occurred during the court proceedings.
The Ombudsman cannot investigate Miss B’s complaint because it concerns matters which have been the subject of court action, or are closely related to those matters. And the effects the situation has had on Miss B stem from the court proceedings and decisions, which by law, we cannot investigate any part of.
Miss B also says the Council’s care planning for her children is not following the court’s orders. The court proceedings ended in July 2023 and there is no evidence of a recent complaint made about events after this. So a complaint about the current application of the court order by the Council is premature. Miss B may bring a new complaint to us about this after she has completed the Council’s complaints procedure.
Final decision
We will not investigate Miss B’s complaint because it concerns matters which have been considered in court or are closely related to those matters. There is no discretion available to us to investigate these matters.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman