The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council’s children’s services handled her case. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council and we could not achieve a different outcome if we investigated.
The complaint
The complainant, Mrs A, complained about how the Council’s children’s services handled the temporary removal of her children from her care.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Ombudsman investigates 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 may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide: there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
Mrs A has had the opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making my final decision.
My assessment
Mrs A told us her children were temporarily removed from her care and separated. She said she was not at fault. Mrs A said she was treated horrifically and the apology she has received from the Council does not make the situation right.
The Council considered Mrs A’s complaint. It said it acted on information it had received from the police and followed its procedures. It apologised for the upset and distress caused. In the Council’s response it said if Mrs A could make it aware of comments in the assessment she is unhappy with, it will have a look and rectify these comments if appropriate. It said it will recommend that relevant social workers are reminded how important it is to provide support to families during similar incidents.
When considering complaints about child protection matters, we may not act like an appeal body. We cannot question the merits of the decision the Council has made or offer any opinion on whether or not we agree with the judgement of the Councils officers. Instead, we focus on the process by which the decision was made. In this case there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council. It has followed the process we would expect. It acted on information provided by the police. We cannot criticise it for doing so. We could not achieve a different outcome for Mrs A if we investigated her complaint.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mrs A’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council and we could not achieve a different outcome if we investigated.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman