The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council not re-instating contact with Miss X’s child ten years ago. Miss X was aware in 2019 that letters had not been passed on and that the Council had then told her it would not do so. She could have approached us sooner about the administrative matter, and she had a right to go to court about the decision in 2019 it would have been reasonable to use.
The complaint
Miss X said the Council wrongly failed to re-instate contact with her child ten years ago.
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)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
The complaint correspondence I have seen shows Miss X has complained repeatedly to the Council since at least early 2019 regarding her child, who was removed from her care several years earlier and in respect of whose residence there was at least one court order. A Council response to her in the first half of 2019 stated it had not sent her letters on to her child, and that it would not now do so because it felt it was not in his best interest.
If we treat the not passing on of letters at any time before 2019 as an administrative error rather than a conscious decision by the Council, this would not be a matter about which Miss X could have gone to court in 2019. However, she was aware of this matter three years before she approached us.
But the Council’s letter in 2019 also told Miss X of a decision about contact, that it would not be sending letters on because it felt it was not in her child’s best interest. Disputed decisions about contact are for courts to decide. Any recent change in the Council’s position that may reflect the child’s increasing age and wishes does not change the previous existence of this right.
The Council’s original decision regarding Miss X’s child was one only another court could amend.
Final decision
We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because: there is no good reason to investigate an administrative matter Miss X has known about for three years and about which she could have approached us sooner; the Council’s confirmed decision in 2019 to continue not to pass on letters or any other decisions not to promote contact in any other way is not separable from Miss X’s right to go to court, and any recent change of approach by the Council does not change that; and we cannot investigate matters that have been subject to court decisions
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman