The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s Child and Family assessment report. The law prevents us from considering the content of reports produced as part of court proceedings.
The complaint
Ms X complained the Council did not amend inaccuracies in a report. Ms X says this led to false information being presented in court and her children’s father removing the children from her care. Ms X wants the Council to provide answers and compensate her.
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 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
Ms X’s complaint is about the content of a report the Council produced when it was applying for an interim care order, to obtain shared parental responsibility of Ms X’s children. She raised several inaccuracies which the Council noted on file, but did not amend. The Council, via the statutory children’s complaints procedure, accepted it had not made amendments it should have.
Ms X claimed the injustice caused by the above matter is it enabled the children’s father to remove the children from her care. The Council explained via the complaints process that the father and Ms X both had parental responsibility and there was no court order in place directing that the children should live with one parent or the other.
The Council offered Ms X apologies, as well as a symbolic payment of £800 to recognise her distress and the time and trouble she went to. This related to other matters as well as those addressed above. Ms X was not satisfied with this and complained to us.
The law prevents us from considering what happened in court, which includes the Council’s representations as part of the proceedings. Despite the Council later accepting it had been at fault, this is not a matter we can investigate. Ms X had the opportunity to raise her concerns with the report as part of the proceedings.
The matter Ms X raises about the children’s father removing them from her care is too closely related to the proceedings. It is a consequence of the fault Ms X claims relating to the Council’s assessment. In any event, both Ms X and the father of her children had parental responsibility at this time. The father could not have been prevented from taking the children into his care without the courts being involved. Ms X has since begun private proceedings, which is appropriate. Only the courts, not us or the Council, can decide where the children must live and what contact arrangements should be in place.
The peripheral matters Ms X raises in her complaint to the Council are all intertwined with the proceedings, and it would be reasonable for Ms X to raise these matters as part of the private proceedings that are now ongoing. In any event, it is unlikely we could improve on the symbolic payment the Council has already offered if we decided to investigate any matters that could come within our jurisdiction. It is not our role to assess economic losses or award compensation. Where someone seeks significant compensation, we will normally direct them to the courts. It is open to Ms X to pursue a compensation claim.
Final decision
We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because it relates to matters that have been considered in court, and that would be reasonable to raise as part of current proceedings.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman