The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the actions of social workers. A parenting assessment is not a matter that is separable from the court proceedings for which it was prepared. Most of the matters complained of also pre-date the end of court proceedings by some time, they are late, and they could reasonably have been raised in court. The remaining matters since the court action concluded are not ones where our further involvement would be likely to find sufficient fault or injustice to Mr X to warrant investigation.
The complaint
Mr X said the Council had not dealt with his complaints properly as it had said I could not find what he was complaining about on its system. He said the Council had lied in saying a parenting assessment was done. He wanted the Council to stop lying, find the information he was asking about, sort it out and put it right.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
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) We have the power to start or discontinue an investigation into a complaint within our jurisdiction. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we think the issues could reasonably be, or have been, raised within a court of law. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8), as amended) We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended) 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 any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
Mr X’s complaint to us lacked specific detail, so I considered the matters he complained of in his correspondence with the Council.
My assessment
The correspondence between Mr X and the Council states there was court action concerning his children, with final care orders being decided in March 2022.
The issue at the centre of the complaint is the Council’s decision about where the family’s children should live. It is clear from the correspondence that there was a parenting assessment carried out by the Council for the court. It therefore formed part of court action and any dispute about it was for the court to decide. We have no authority to consider it.
Most of the remaining matters about which Mr X complained to the Council date from late 2020 or 2021. They are less significant than the parenting assessment leading to the court order, and they are related to it as they concern the care of the children, and how the Council was promoting or neglecting that. It would have been reasonable for them to have been raised in court as evidence of the reasonableness or otherwise of the Council’s actions in seeking to remove the children. Even if that were not so, the correspondence shows the Council offered Mr X in mid-2021 the right to escalate the complaints he had made to the next stage of its complaint procedure. The evidence I have seen indicates he did not do so for 12 months.
The only matters that post-date the court action are a diary book having been left uncollected, and keeping the family up to date about the children in April 2022. The Council accepted the book had been left uncollected for a long time. However, this is unlikely to have caused any significant injustice after March 2022. The Council gave Mr X the dates in April 2022 when it said it gave him information. Investigation by us of this matter alone, concerning a short period of time, is unlikely to lead to a finding of sufficient fault and injustice to warrant the investigation.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because: We cannot investigate the parenting assessment, which formed part of court proceedings; Most of the remaining matters pre-date the conclusion of court proceedings and are related to the care of the children, so they could reasonably have been raised during the court proceedings; Even if that were not so, the matters between late 2020 and mid-2021 are late, and there would be no good reason to exercise discretion to investigate them now; and There is unlikely to be enough injustice caused by fault in the matters of the diary book or information provided by the Council in April 2022 to warrant investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman