The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the removal of the complainant’s child from her care. The complaint concerns matters which have been considered and decided in court, and investigation would achieve no worthwhile outcome.
The complaint
The complainant, Miss X, complains that the Council was at fault in removing her child from her care and in holding false information on its case records.
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 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 investigate 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 continue an investigation if we decide there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Miss X’s child has been removed from her care. Miss X says the Councils actions were unreasonable, and that it should instead have supported her to care for her child. She further accuses the Council of misrepresenting her mental state and holding false information on its records.
Miss X wants her child returned to her care. She also wants the Council to correct its records and make procedural changes.
The Ombudsman will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because we cannot achieve anything by doing so. The decision to remove the child from her care was made by the Court. By law, we cannot investigate what happens in a court, so we cannot consider the decision. The courts have held that this restriction applies to any matter which is inextricably linked to what happens in court. The Ombudsman cannot therefore investigate whether the Council acted properly in relation to the removal of Miss X’s child.
We will not ask a council to make retrospective changes to its records. This is because the records reflect the officers’ view of the case at the time they were made. The most we would normally expect is that a statement of the complainant’s dissenting views are included in the records. Miss X has already set out her views in her complaint to the Council, so there is nothing further we would seek to achieve.
If Miss X believes the Council’s records contain false information, she may pursue the matter through her right to rectification. There is no role for the Ombudsman.
Final decision
We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because we cannot consider the substantive matter and cannot achieve a worthwhile outcome.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman