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 family. This is because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to consider his complaint whilst there are ongoing court proceedings. Also, we cannot consider any matters that are, or have been, subject to court proceedings. We have no discretion to do so.
The complaint
Mr X complains about the Council’s actions and decisions in its child protection involvement with his children and about his children being removed from his care and placed for adoption.
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)) 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)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mr X complained to the Council about its actions in its child protection involvement with his children which has led to his children being removed from his care.
The Council told Mr X it could not currently consider his complaint. This is because the case is subject to ongoing court proceedings. It advised Mr X to raise his concerns via his legal representative so that they can be considered during the court 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 there are ongoing court proceedings. It is a decision the Council has discretion to make, in line with the relevant statutory guidance to local authority children’s services on the handling of complaints where there are ongoing proceedings. This is to ensure the proceedings, which must take precedence over a complaint investigation, are not put at risk of being prejudiced by a concurrent investigation. Mr X can resubmit his complaint to the Council once the court proceedings have concluded to see whether there are any residual matters it can consider which were not, and could not have been, raised during the proceedings.
We cannot investigate complaints about matters that are being, or have been, considered in court proceedings, or which could have been raised and considered during the proceedings. Such matters lie outside our jurisdiction and we have no discretion to consider them.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to investigate his complaint whilst there are ongoing court proceedings and we cannot consider any matters that are being or have been considered in court proceedings.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman