The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council deciding it is not safe for Mr X to return home to be supervised with his children while court proceedings about a serious matter are still awaited. The decision is one the Council was entitled to make given the nature of the matter and it is unlikely that investigation by us would lead to a finding of fault.
The complaint
Mr X said a senior officer of the Council overturned plans by other officers to allow him to return home where contact with his children would be supervised. Her said there had been a long delay and the Council was wrong to use a delay in court proceedings as a reason.
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 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 not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or 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 and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
A court case is due that concerns a serious matter. The Council’s view is that this matter raises a potential safeguarding risk and that it is not safe at present for Mr X to return home for his contact with his children to be supervised. We cannot say if it would be safe for Mr X to return home or that the Council should not wait for the result of the court case. That a senior manager may have overruled a safeguarding decision by more junior staff because they take a different view of the evidence does not give us the right to offer our own view, as managers in any organisation are entitled to review decisions by their staff.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault in how the Council reached its decision to warrant our further involvement.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman