Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council (19 011 269)
Category : Children's care services > Child protection
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 11 Feb 2020
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: The Ombudsman cannot investigate Mrs A’s complaint about her children being placed in police protection and the Council then obtaining care orders for her children. The complaint lies outside the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction because it is made about matters that have been considered and decided in court proceedings.
The complaint
- The complainant, whom I shall call Mrs A, complains her three children were placed into police protection in early 2018. In late 2018, they were placed in foster care after the court granted a care order for them.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- 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)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered the information Mrs A provided in her complaint to this office. I sent Mrs A a draft version of my decision and invited her comments on it.
What I found
- Mrs A complains the Council unlawfully pursued and obtained care orders for her three children after they were wrongly placed in police protection in early 2018. Mrs A’s children were placed in foster care in late 2018 after a care order was granted by the court. Mrs A would like the care order to be discharged. Mrs A also complains about the Council’s handling of her complaint.
Final decision
- We cannot investigate this complaint because is lies outside our jurisdiction. The law prevents us from considering matters that have been considered and decided in court proceedings. We have no discretion to do so.
- We cannot consider the decision to place the children in police protection as we cannot consider the police’s actions in relation to crime.
- We will not consider complaint handling issues where the crux of the complaint lies outside our jurisdiction.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman