Lancashire County Council

The Ombudsman's final decision

Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council’s actions in its handling of her children’s case which is subject to ongoing family court proceedings. This is because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to consider her complaint until the proceedings have concluded.

The complaint

Ms X complains about the Council’s actions in its handling of her children’s case which is subject to ongoing family court proceedings. She complains there has been an ongoing lack of communication; multiple changes of social worker without proper handovers and it has failed to acknowledge her progress. She also complains the Council has not accommodated her communication difficulties and a social worker was confrontational towards her and dismissed information she provided.

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

Ms X complained to the Council about the matters set out in paragraph one, above.

The Council told Ms X it would not currently consider her complaint as to do so could prejudice the ongoing court proceedings. It explained that once the proceedings have concluded she can resubmit her complaint for consideration of any matters not addressed as part of the proceedings. It signposted Ms X to this office if she was dissatisfied with its decision.

We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint. This is because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to consider her complaint until the ongoing court proceedings have concluded. As set out in the Council’s response, this is to ensure the proceedings are not put at risk of being prejudiced by a concurrent complaint investigation. It is a decision the Council is entitled to make in line with the relevant guidance.

It will be open to Ms X to resubmit her complaint to the Council once the proceedings have concluded to see whether there are any residual matters it can consider via its complaints procedure.

We cannot consider complaints about matters that are being, or have been, considered in court proceedings, or which could have been considered in the proceedings. Such matters lie outside our jurisdiction and the law gives us no discretion to consider them.

Final decision

We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to investigate her complaint whilst the case is subject to ongoing court proceedings.

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman