Summary: The Ombudsman cannot and should not investigate the lack of therapy provided to Miss X before the Court making an Adoption Order for her child. We cannot investigate legal proceedings and this includes the reasons for any Court order. And it is unlikely we would find fault in the Council not providing it since.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Miss X, says the Council failed to provide required therapy which resulted in her child’s adoption. And the Council is still refusing to provide the therapy.

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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. We have the power to start or discontinue an investigation into a complaint within our jurisdiction. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we think the issues could reasonably be, or have been, raised within a court of law. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8), as amended)
4. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word 'fault' to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered the information Miss X provided with her complaint which included the Council’s reply. I considered Miss X’s comments on a draft version of this decision.

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What I found

6. Miss X says in 2016 a psychological assessment showed she would benefit from some therapy to help her parent her soon to be born child. She says the Council did not provide this therapy and should have done. She says the Council instead pursued court proceedings. The Court made an Adoption Order. She says if the Council had provided the therapy the Court would not have made the Adoption Order.
7. Miss X says she would like to have another child. She does not want to do so unless she can have the recommended therapy. She says the Council is refusing to provide her with it.
8. The Council say the Court made the final orders and all the issues were discussed within those proceedings.

Analysis

9. We cannot investigate the Court’s decision to make an adoption order. It is reasonable to expect Miss X to have told the Court the therapy should be provided so she could care for her child. We cannot therefore investigate the Council’s decision not to provide the therapy before the Court made the Adoption Order.
10. It is unlikely our investigation could achieve the result Miss X seeks, the therapy. Nor is it likely we would find fault in the Council’s decision not to provide the therapy now. The Council’s children services team has no duty to provide that to her when she has no children in her care or where there is no plan to return her child to her care.

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Final decision

11. The Ombudsman should not and cannot investigate this complaint. This is because we cannot investigate the Court’s decision to make an adoption order. And it is unlikely we would find fault in the Council’s decision not to provide therapy since the order.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman