The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about his son’s social worker. This is because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to consider his complaint whilst the case is subject to ongoing court proceedings.
The complaint
Mr X complains about the Council’s decision not to consider his complaint about his son’s social worker due to there being ongoing court proceedings. Mr X says he was served an interim care order on the date he expected to receive the response to his complaint.
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 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. (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 and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mr X complained to the Council about his son’s allocated social worker.
The Council told Mr X it would not consider his complaint because the matter complained about was subject to ongoing court proceedings. It advised Mr X to raise his concerns to the court during the proceedings. It explained that once the proceedings have concluded it would be open to Mr X to resubmit his complaint, but that it cannot consider evidence or reports considered by the court and it cannot review or change the court’s decision.
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 statutory guidance to local authority childrens services where there are concurrent 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 complaint investigation.
As set out in the Council’s response, it will be open to Mr X to resubmit his 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 which are being, or have been, considered in court 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 consider his complaint whilst the matter is subject to ongoing court proceedings.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman