The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We cannot investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council removing her children from her care under false pretences because the Ombudsman cannot investigate matters which are being dealt with in a court of law.
The complaint
Mrs X complains about the Council pressuring her to allow her children to be taken into a family member’s care.
Mrs X complains about the poor practice of a Social Worker involved in her children’s care.
Mrs X complains about her historic experiences of social services, both as a child, and as an adult, whereby she refers to social services pressuring her to have an abortion.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
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) We have the power to start or end an investigation into a complaint about actions the law allows us to investigate. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we think the issues could reasonably be or have been mentioned as part of the legal proceedings regarding a closely related matter. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8), as amended, section 34(B)) The Ombudsman cannot investigate whether social workers are meeting their professional standards of conduct. Complaints of this nature should be referred to the social workers’ professional body, Social Work England.
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
There are court proceedings ongoing to decide who is best placed to care for Mrs X’s children. During this court process, it would be reasonable for Mrs X to raise the matter of the Council’s actions involving a voluntary agreement of care for her children.
The court process prevents us from investigating any matters relating to how the Council dealt with Mrs X at the time she agreed to her children being cared for by her family member. This is because these matters are not separable from those it would be reasonable to raise in court.
We are unable to investigate practice of the Social Worker referred to in Mrs X’s complaint. Whilst this is not separable from the matter which is before the court, it is also important to note that we are unable to investigate social work conduct. Complaints of this nature should be referred to the social workers’ professional body, Social Work England.
Mrs X refers, in brief, to her own historic dealings with social services, and to an incident where she felt pressured to have an abortion. There are two reasons we might investigate late complaints: if the complainant was unaware of the matter or unable to complain sooner, neither of which apply to Mrs X’s complaint. The events are also so old it would not be possible for us to investigate effectively now.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because: we cannot investigate matters which are not separable from matters subject to court proceedings; we cannot investigate alleged professional misconduct by social workers; and we will not investigate historical matters Mrs X complains of because there is no good reason to exercise our discretion to do so.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman