Summary: The Ombudsman cannot investigate this complaint about the Council’s approach to contact between the complainant and his children. This is because the matters complained of have been considered by a court. The Ombudsman will not exercise its discretion to investigate a complaint about Council inaction prior to the court case. This is because the complaint was made late and there are no good reasons to investigate it now.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I refer to here as Mr X, complained that the Council’s social services team failed to intervene when child contact arrangements broke down.

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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)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by Mr X and by the Council about the complaint. I also considered Mr X’s comments on a draft version of the decision.

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What I found

6. Mr X has two sons, now aged 11 and 12, by his first wife from whom he separated shortly after the birth of his elder son. There followed a period of social services involvement and court action concerning what he says were false allegations by the boys’ mother against Mr X. This concluded in 2011 when the parties agreed the children would reside with their mother while maintaining frequent contact with their father. Mr X has stated he agreed to this arrangement on the understanding social services would intervene if contact broke down in future – intervention that Mr X said was also recommended in a social services report.
7. In early 2017 Mr X grew concerned that his sons were becoming alienated from him. He contacted the Council’s social services department for advice, but said it declined involvement and advised him to return to court. When his sons stopped visiting him in April 2017, he again contacted social services and asked for an investigation under child protection procedures. He was advised to report any concerns about his sons to the Council’s multi-agency safeguarding hub. Mr X did this, but the Council still did not intervene. He later took the matter to court, resulting in a finding in January 2019 that the boys’ mother was causing them emotional harm. The court made an order for shared care with Mr X.
8. In his complaint to the Council Mr X said its social workers’ refusal to intervene in 2017 represented a failure in their duty of care to his sons. He felt that had social workers intervened, court action would not have been necessary. He requested reimbursement of his legal costs plus interest, compensation for emotional harm and money for ongoing therapy and access to Council records on his family.
9. In its response the Council said its complaint procedures did not allow consideration of matters arising more than one year ago unless they involved delays by the Council or the complainant did not have an opportunity to complain earlier. Mr X contested this, stating that his family’s therapy needs were ongoing.
10. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Complaints are considered late when someone waits for more than 12 months to complain after they become aware of something a council has done. Mr X told us he felt emotionally unable to complain before 2020. This does not change the fact that the Council decisions he complained of were made almost three years ago. The contact arrangements between Mr X and his former wife are now governed by a court order. It is not possible for us to decide whether the court case might have been avoided if social workers had intervened.
11. In addition, we are unable to investigate matters that have been the subject of court action. Mr X has requested costs to cover his court case, therapy and compensation for emotional harm. As Mr X’s costs relate to matters considered in court, we are unable to investigate these. It is not possible for us to decide if therapy would or would not be necessary, had the Council intervened.
12. Mr X has also requested a full record of all records held on file by the Council relating to his sons and himself. The Council has advised Mr X of the process for obtaining these and has sent his request to its Data Protection Team.

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Final decision

13. We cannot investigate this complaint. This is because the matters complained of have been considered by a court. With regards to matters pre-dating the court action we will not investigate, as the complaint was made late and there are no good reasons to investigate now.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman