Summary: The Ombudsman cannot investigate Miss X’s complaint about the Council’s children services team actions before preparing a report for Court proceedings. The action fed into the report which forms part of legal proceedings which we cannot investigate.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Miss X, complains about a report the Council provided to a Court and its officers’ opinion and attitude towards her.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
3. We have the power to start or discontinue an investigation into a complaint within our jurisdiction. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we think the issues could reasonably be, or have been, raised within a court of law. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered the information Miss X provided with her complaint and the Council’s replies which it and she provided. I considered Miss X’s comments on a draft version of this decision.

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What I found

Background

5. Miss X has a 11 year old child, D. The Council’s children services team had some involvement in the family between 2016 and 2018. But Miss X complains about events in 2019.
6. The Council held an Initial Child Protection Conference in February 2019 as it had been notified of concerns about D’s care. Miss X says the Council’s view of her parenting was wrong.
7. In April 2019 D said while staying at their father’s that they did not want to return to their mother’s care.
8. The father started court proceedings to decide D’s care arrangements. As part of those proceedings the Court ordered the Council produce a report about D’s welfare and circumstances. This is called a section seven report. Miss X says the report was poorly prepared, inaccurate and unfair.
9. The Court made a final decision on D’s care in October 2019. Miss X then complained to the Council. It said the report was part of the court proceedings.

Analysis

10. We cannot investigate the preparation, collation, and analysis of evidence, including reports written by social workers or other officers for court proceedings (or the use of a report written previously, in subsequent court proceedings) and evidence given by council officers in any proceedings.
11. It is reasonable to expect Miss X to have told the Court of her views on the Council’s opinions about her, if they could have affected the Court’s decision. The Court’s decisions and consideration of D’s care supersedes the Council’s child protection conferences in February and May 2019.
12. The Council’s views about Miss X’s parenting in early 2019, fed into the section seven report. We cannot investigate this.
13. We cannot investigate the Council using the section seven report outside of Court. This is because we cannot investigate whether the report is accurate.
14. Miss X says the Council’s officers made inappropriate comments to her and to D. Any injustice from this, separate from the Court’s decision, is not significant enough to justify an investigation.

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Final decision

15. The Ombudsman cannot investigate this complaint. This is because we cannot investigate the actions and events in connection with the preparation of a report and evidence, which formed part of legal proceedings.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman