London Borough of Bromley (20 004 076)
Category : Children's care services > Child protection
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 02 Dec 2020
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: The Ombudsman should not investigate Miss X’s complaint about the Council’s decision to take her children into care. A court decided these matters.
The complaint
- Miss X complains the Council acted wrongly in taking her children into care. She was also critical of the judge who sat in the case.
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)
- The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I read Miss X’s complaint and the Council’s final response to it. I gave Miss X the opportunity to comment on a draft decision.
What I found
- In the correspondence I have seen, both Miss X and the Council confirm a court decided where her children should live. The Ombudsman cannot investigate the conduct of court proceedings and the residence of Miss X’s children can only be decided by a court. It would be reasonable for her to use her right to approach a court.
Final decision
- The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint about Miss X’s children’s residence. These matters are subject to court decisions.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman