The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint about the Council’s children’s services involvement with the complainant family. This is because the complaint concerns the commencement of court proceedings or matters that have been raised, or could reasonably have been raised, in court.
The complaint
Miss X complains about that the Council commenced court proceedings without informing her. She says during proceedings inaccurate and redacted information was shared impacting the care arrangements of her child and which placed her and her child at risk.
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) The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), 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
I cannot investigate Miss X’s complaint. The law says that we cannot investigate matters about the commencement or court proceedings, about what happened in court of which could reasonably be raised in court. This includes the submission of information by the Council to the courts. If Miss X disagreed with the information provided to the courts it is reasonable to expect her to raise this during proceedings via her legal representative. We have no powers to say what access Miss X should have to her child. This is a matter for the courts to decide.
Final decision
We cannot investigate Miss X’s complaint because it is about the commencement of court proceedings or matters that have been raised or could have been raised in court.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman