The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about a social worker’s handling of her mother’s care and support. This is because the complaint is outside our jurisdiction as the matters have been party to court proceedings.
The complaint
Ms X complains about a social worker’s handling of her mother’s care and support. She says: She was not consulted on her mother’s care plan.
The social worker included inaccurate and unsubstantiated information in her witness statement to get a deprivation of liberty safeguards in place.
The social worker directly intervened to prevent her from seeing her mother for over a year.
The social worker was not working in her mother’s best interest.
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 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))
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 complaint matters Ms X raises are all issues that have been considered in court. It was reasonable for Ms X to have raised her concerns, or made representations, during court proceedings.
The law says we cannot investigate matters that have been considered by the courts. That includes any information presented as part of court proceedings.
Therefore, we cannot investigate this complaint as the matters are outside of our jurisdiction.
Final decision
We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because the complaint is outside our jurisdiction as the matters have been party to court proceedings.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman