Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the actions of a social worker for the Council during child protection action. This is because the actions complained of relate to court proceedings and are out of our jurisdiction.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will refer to as Mr B, complains about the actions of a social worker in the course of child protection action relating to his children.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
3. The Ombudsman investigates 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 may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. The Council initiated child protection action in 2018 following an allegation made by Mr B’s daughter. His daughter was made subject to a care order and remains in foster care. Mr B’s other children were placed on child protection plans.
7. Mr B complains about the actions of his children’s social worker. He believes the officer was biased against him on the grounds of race, culture and religion. He believes that, without fault on the social worker’s part, negative outcomes would have been avoided.
8. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint because the majority of alleged injustice flowing from the actions complained of is the protracted court proceedings which ensued, and the decision to take Mr B’s daughter into foster care. We are unable to consider any matter that relates to court proceedings and this complaint is therefore out of our jurisdiction.
9. We will not consider any residual actions which do not have a bearing on the court proceedings as the complaint documents show the Council properly investigated the matters Mr B raised. That being the case, it is unlikely the Ombudsman would identify sufficient grounds to intervene.
10. Complaints about the individual social worker, rather than those about the Council, could be brought to the attention of Social Work England.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman