The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about the Council’s actions in its child protection involvement with her child. This is because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to consider her complaint whilst the case is subject to ongoing court proceedings.
The complaint
The complainant, Miss X, complains about the Council’s actions in its child protection involvement with her child. The Council has told Miss X it will not consider her complaint until the ongoing court proceedings relating to her child have concluded.
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 informed Miss X it will not consider her complaint via its complaints procedure at this time because there are currently ongoing court proceedings relating to her child. It told Miss X she can resubmit her complaint once the proceedings have concluded.
We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint. This is because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to investigate her complaint whilst there are ongoing court proceedings. This is to ensure the proceedings are not at risk of being prejudiced by a concurrent complaint investigation. It is a decision the Council has discretion to make in line with the statutory guidance to local authority children’s services on the handling of complaints where there are ongoing proceedings.
As the Council has explained in its response, it will be open to Miss X to resubmit her complaint to the Council once the proceedings have concluded. The Council will then decide whether there are any matters it can consider which were not, and could not have been, raised in the court proceedings.
Final decision
We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to investigate her complaint whilst there are ongoing court proceedings.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman