Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about care arrangements for and safeguarding of the complainant’s adult daughter. This is because the matters in it are the subject of court action or related closely enough to mean we could not investigate them separately.

The complaint

1. Mr B say the Council has failed to provide suitable care to meet the needs of his adult daughter’s disabilities, the placement and care have been so unsuitable they create safeguarding concerns the Council has also failed to address, and it has failed properly to investigate and reply to his complaint.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes limits on what we can investigate.
3. 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)
4. 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)
5. 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 about a closely related matter. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6) as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
7. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

8. The Court of Protection has issued an order approving controls on Mr B’s daughter’s liberty in a care setting. The Council told me her placement has changed, and there are live court proceedings which will consider her care and living arrangements including any restrictions. Mr B has sent us a copy of a witness statement he has made for the court which is consistent with this.
9. Mr B says the current arrangements create increased risks for his daughter and significant distress, anxiety, time and trouble for him and her mother from pursuing matters.
10. The Council has declined to consider Mr B’s complaints while court action remains live. It has said he can complain again about matters the court does not resolve and it will consider what it could investigate separately. This is what the Ombudsman would expect, so we would not investigate the way the Council has responded, including about safeguarding concerns.
11. This complaint therefore engages matters at the heart of the arrangements the Council has and needs to make to provide suitable care for Mr B’s daughter. The same key questions exist in both the live court action and in the complaint to the Ombudsman, even if Mr B might wish to describe them differently.
12. We do not know whether the Council or Mr B began the current court action. Paragraph 3 would apply if the former, and paragraph 4 if the latter. In either case, however, I am satisfied it is for the court, not the Ombudsman, to decide on the suitability of existing and proposed arrangements for Mr B’s daughter.
13. If, as the Council says, there are unresolved parts of Mr B’s complaint which can be separated from the court proceedings and decisions once the court action is finished, Mr B may complain again, first to the Council and then to the Ombudsman once it has finished addressing his complaint. We could then consider further those matters either the court did not dealt with or were not closely related.

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Final decision

14. We will not investigate Mr B’s complaint because the matters in it are the subject of court action or related closely enough to mean we could not investigate them separately.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman