The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council taking Miss X’s child into care and having them put up for adoption. The law prevents us from investigating matters subject to court proceedings.
The complaint
Miss X complained the Council wrongly placed her child with foster carers, stopped her contact with the child and put them up for adoption. She says the matter caused her considerable distress. She wants the social worker to be dismissed and the child returned to her care.
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)) 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: there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Miss X’s complaint concerns care proceedings, via which her child was placed with foster carers then put up for adoption. The law prevents us from investigating the Council’s decision to begin care proceedings, its actions as part of those proceedings and the content of its representations to the court. We cannot consider the substantive part of Miss X’s complaint.
Miss X raised peripheral matters, for example about the actions of the social worker prior to proceedings beginning. These are matters that would have been reasonable for Miss X to raise as part of the proceedings, because the alleged consequence is the court’s decision. We will not consider these parts of the complaint.
Miss X also complained the Council reported her friend to social services in their area, due to their association with Miss X. We will not investigate this as there is insufficient evidence of fault in the Council’s actions. Where the Council has concerns about risk to children, it must act on that risk. We would not criticise it for making a report to the other council, given that the extent of the concerns led the court to decide Miss X should not have care of, or contact with, her child.
In any event, we could not achieve the outcomes Miss X seeks from complaining. Only the courts, not the Council or the Ombudsman, can make a decision to place a child into care. We have no power to change the court’s decision. We also cannot recommend employees are dismissed, as this is an employment matter.
Final decision
We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because it is about matters that have been considered in court, which the law prevents us from investigating.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman