Newcastle upon Tyne City Council (21 014 049)
Category : Children's care services > Adoption
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 21 Jan 2022
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s social workers and their involvement with the complainant’s family. This is because we cannot achieve anything significant by doing so.
The complaint
- The complainant, who I will refer to as Ms B, complains that the Council was at fault in its actions towards her and her family, and that this fault led to her daughter being adopted.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Ms B’s daughter was born in 2018 and was placed in the Council’s care soon after. Following a period in foster care, the Court decided she should be adopted. Ms B complains that the Council’s officers were at fault throughout the period they were involved with her and her daughter. She says her daughter was wrongfully adopted.
- Ms B’s complaint has completed the three stages of the statutory procedure for complaints about children’s services. It has been upheld in part.
- We will not investigate Ms B’s complaint because we cannot achieve anything significant by doing so. The issues she has raised have been properly considered under the statutory complaints procedure. The Council has fully accepted the findings and recommendations, including where it has found to be at fault. That being the case there are no grounds for us to reinvestigate the matter.
- It is not for the Ombudsman to comment on whether Ms B’s daughter should have been adopted. The Ombudsman cannot investigate what happens in court. The adoption was decided in Court and this places it outside our jurisdiction.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Ms B’s complaint because we cannot achieve anything significant by doing so.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman