Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint about the involvement of the Council’s children’s services with the complainant and her daughter. This is because there is no fault in the Council’s actions in the only issue which is in the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I refer to here as Ms J, says that the Council:
• Unfairly took her daughter, D, into care;
• Denied her contact with her daughter;
• Has refused to fund private therapy for her daughter.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions 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. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
5. 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 it is unlikely we would find fault. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered the information provided by Ms J and by the Council. I have also sent Ms J a draft decision for her comments.

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What I found

7. The Council’s children’s services became involved with Ms J and D in 2013. Eventually D was taken into care for a period of time. During this time Ms J says she was denied contact with D. D returned to Ms J in 2018.
8. Ms J has complained about the Council’s actions as she says she was treated unfairly.
9. We cannot investigate this element of Ms J’s complaint however. This is because the decisions regarding care and contact with D were made by a court, and are therefore out of the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction. Additionally, the other actions by the Council from that period are out of jurisdiction because the complaint about them is late. The Ombudsman cannot investigate complaints about matters that the complainant knew about more than 12 months previously, unless there are good reasons to do so. In this case the Council’s response was made in June 2018 and Ms J took no further action at the time. I have seen no good reasons to exercise the Ombudsman’s discretion to consider this part of the complaint now.
10. Ms J further complains that the Council has refused to pay for private therapy for D, who, she says, is suffering the after effects of being taken into care.
11. The Council says that that D came home in August 2018, and the case was closed as D appeared to be settled with Ms J and no recommendations or concerns had been raised which would indicate a need for therapy.
12. It further says that if D does have problems, Ms J can ask for support either from her GP or from her school, which can refer to the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service for assessment. She can also request support from the Council’s social services if she wishes to do so.
13. There is no fault in the Council’s response, and while I appreciate Ms J’s distrust of the Council’s services, the avenues suggested are accessed via the NHS.

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Final decision

14. I will not investigate this complaint. This is because there is no fault in the actions of the Council in relation to the only issue that is in jurisdiction.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman