The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint as we cannot investigate Court ordered reports or events the Court has considered.
The complaint
The complainant, whom I shall call Mr X, complains about a Council children services assessment and its attitude towards him.
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 investigate 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 continue an investigation if we decide we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mr X says the Council carried out an assessment on his family. He had told the Council that he was concerned about his children’s safety with their mother. He believed they were not being cared for adequately. He also applied to Court for it to decide the children’s care arrangements. As part of those proceedings the Court ordered the Council to prepare a report.
The Council prepared a section seven report. This is a report about the children’s welfare. The Court uses this to help its decision. The Court gives Mr X a chance to question the report and state his views on it.
Mr X says he had to give up his court case to get sole care of the children because of the Council’s report. He says he is really worried about the children.
The Council in its response to Mr X said that it had no evidence to substantiate the claims and that it could not influence the contact he has with his children.
Because section seven reports form part of court proceedings, we have no power to investigate their preparation or content. We also will not investigate those reports which fed into the section seven report, or which were used to form the section seven report.
In addition, if Mr X believed the Council should have carried out more investigations about the children’s welfare, and the mother’s care of them, it is reasonable to expect him to have asked the Court to consider ordering the Council to do so. The Court can then order a section 37 report.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we cannot investigate section seven reports preparation, nor the events covered by Court proceedings.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman