The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about her children being removed from her care. This is because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to consider her complaint whilst there are ongoing court proceedings.
The complaint
Miss X complains the Council removed her children from her care with no good reason for doing so and has told her only the court can return them to her care. The case 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 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 and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
The Council told Miss X it cannot consider her complaints at this time because it could be prejudicial to the ongoing court proceedings for it to do so. It advised Miss X to raise her concerns with her legal representative. It told Miss X she can resubmit her complaint to the Council for consideration once the proceedings have concluded, and within one year of the conclusion of the proceedings. It signposted Miss X to this office.
We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint. This is because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to consider her complaint whilst there are ongoing court proceedings. This is in order to ensure the proceedings, which must take precedence over a complaint investigation, are not at risk of being prejudiced by a concurrent complaint investigation. This is a decision the Council has discretion to make. It 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 including court proceedings.
As set out in the Council’s response, it will be open to Miss X to resubmit her complaint to the Council once the proceedings have concluded to see whether there are any residual matters it can consider.
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.
Final decision
We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to consider her complaint whilst there are ongoing court proceedings.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman