The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s actions in its child protection involvement with his children. This is because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to consider his complaint whilst the matter is subject to ongoing court proceedings.
The complaint
The complainant, Mr X, complains about the Council’s handling of his childrens’ case in its child protection involvement with his family. Mr X says the Council has failed to protect his children from domestic abuse by their mother and is biased against him in favour of the mother. Mr X also complains the childrens’ mother has breached a court order on contact. The Council has told Mr X it will not consider his complaint whilst the matter is subject to ongoing court proceedings.
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 do not start an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended) We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (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
The Council has told Mr X it will not consider his complaint at this time because the matters are being considered in ongoing court proceedings. It explained Mr X could raise his concerns to the court during the proceedings via his legal representative. It advised Mr X that once the proceedings have concluded, it will be open to him to resubmit his complaint to the Council in relation to any residual matters not linked to the proceedings.
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. This is because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to consider his complaint whilst the matter is subject to ongoing court proceedings. This is to ensure the proceedings, which must take precedence over a complaint investigation, are not prejudiced by a concurrent investigation. The Council has made this decision in line with the statutory guidance to local authority children’s services on the handling of complaints where there are ongoing proceedings. It is a decision it is entitled to make.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to consider his complaint whilst there are ongoing court proceedings.
Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman