Summary: The Ombudsman cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint the Council placed his children into foster care under a Court care order. This is because the complaint concerns a decision made by the Court.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council placed his children into police protection in January 2018 before moving them into foster care.
2. In November 2018, the Court made a care order to keep Mr X’s children in foster care. Mr X says the Council refused to apply to Court for the care order to be made invalid.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

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 complaints about police action in connection with crime. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5, paragraph 2, 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:

• the fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• 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

6. I considered the information Mr X provided as part of his complaint. I have written to Mr X with my draft decision and considered his response.

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What I found

7. Mr X says the Council placed his children into police protection in January 2018.
8. We cannot investigate the validity of a Police Protection Order (PPO). These orders are made by the Police and not the Council. We cannot investigate the Police’s actions in conduct of criminal matters.
9. Mr X says the Council placed his children in foster care following the PPO before it started care proceedings.
10. Mr X says the interim care order obtained by the Council in February 2018 is invalid. Mr X says his children should at that point have been returned to him.
11. In November 2018, the Court granted a final care order to keep the children in foster care.
12. We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint because it concerns a decision made by the Court. Although councils may initiate proceedings and make recommendations, the decisions in care proceedings are for the Courts.
13. We cannot override the Court’s decision to grant a care order. We also cannot make a recommendation for the Council to make an application to make such a decision invalid.
14. We cannot investigate how the Council conducts itself during the Care Proceedings. This includes the validity of any interim care order which is a matter for the Court.
15. It is possible there is one day when the children’s legal caring status is not clear. However, given the Court issued an interim Care Order the following day, and went on to issue a full Care Order in November 2018, there is not significant enough injustice to Mr X to pursue this matter.

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Final decision

16. The Ombudsman cannot investigate this complaint. This is because it concerns a decision made by the Court.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman