Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr and Mrs X’s complaints about the actions of the Council’s officers dealing with their step parent adoption application. The Council has agreed to investigate the complaints and write to Mr and Mrs X.

The complaint

1. Mr and Mrs X complain as follows:
2. Complaint 1: that the Council delayed in dealing with their application for a step parent adoption, a process which started in June 2017. Mr X says they recently felt ‘forced’ to withdraw the application due to the conduct of the adoption team. He says the Council’s officers wrongly suggested he failed to inform them that he had a criminal conviction from the mid-1990’s. Mr X says the Council appears to have accepted allegations made against him by his former wife but has refused to tell him what they are. He says the Council ignored information he gave it that he was the victim of domestic violence and had a non-molestation order in place against his former wife.
3. Complaint 2: that the Council’s social worker, during the step parent adoption assessment, told Mrs X’s former partner Ms Y that Mr X was applying to adopt his wife’s daughter, child A. Mr and Mrs X say this resulted in the former partner applying to court for parental rights and formal contact with child A. Mr X says this caused the family distress and £6000 legal costs.
4. Complaint 3: that the Council’s social worker made a safeguarding referral about Mr X to the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH). Mr X says the social worker refused to explain the reasons. The MASH team told him it was not going to do a safeguarding investigation. Mr X is concerned the referral information may be used against him and could cause him problems relating to his work.
5. Complaint 4: that the Council breached data protection rules by sharing information inappropriately with third parties during the adoption assessment, the family court proceedings, and the referral to the MASH team. They say the Council’s failure to keep information confidential caused the court case taken by his wife’s former partner, Ms Y, which is confirmed by her application (comments) to court.
6. Complaint 5: that the Council has refused to investigate all the complaints and has not taken them seriously.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

7. 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 are satisfied with the action a council has agreed to take. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
8. We normally expect someone to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner if they have a complaint about data protection. However, we may decide to investigate if we think there are good reasons. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

9. I have considered Mr and Mrs X’s information and comments and discussed the complaints with them by telephone. I have considered the Council’s replies to the complaints and discussed the complaint handling with it.

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What I found

10. On 29 March the Council wrote to Mr X and declined to deal with his complaints due to a court case. The Council told Mr X he could complain again once the current court proceedings concluded. Later when Mr X complained, the Council told him that its replies to his complaints were in a letter sent to Mrs X. The letter to Mrs X does not cover all the complaints.

Analysis

11. I will not investigate Mr and Mrs X’s complaint for the following reason:
1. The Council has agreed to deal with the complaints including aspects I have highlighted to it. These are the claimed injustice that a court case was caused by the actions of a social worker and clarification of the MASH decision.
2. Mrs X has complained to the Information Commissioner. The Ombudsman would not normally investigate a data protection complaint because the Information Commissioner is the specialist body dealing with such matters. There is also an alternative remedy at court. Should the Information Commissioner uphold Mrs X’s complaint and she considers there is an injustice not remedied she may return to this office.

Agreed Action

12. The Council has agreed to deal with the complaint via a complaint procedure.

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Final decision

13. The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr and Mrs X’s complaints about the actions of the Council’s officers dealing with their step parent adoption application. The Council has agreed to investigate the complaints and write to Mr and Mrs X.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman