The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a social worker’s involvement in a court report. The law prevents us considering such complaints.
The complaint
Mr X complains about the social worker who has been allocated to write a section 7 report for court proceedings.
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)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
As part of private law proceedings involving children, the court may ask the Council to produce a section 7 report. The court will then consider the report as part of its decision making. Mr X is dissatisfied that this particular social worker is writing the report. He wants a different social worker to do this.
The court ordered the section 7 report, so any concerns about how it was prepared or what it contains relate to the court proceedings, which the law prevents us from considering.
Final decision
We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint because the law prevents us from investigating the conduct of court action.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman