Summary: We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint about an extended family member’s care arrangements, as the Court is currently considering this. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about an officer’s actions assigned to a child as Mr X does not have parental responsibility for the child involved.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Mr X, says the Council failed to properly assess him and his wife as carers for a child, D, and failed to protect D from harm.

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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 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. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
4. 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

5. I considered the information Mr X provided with his complaint which included correspondence from the Council. Mr X had the opportunity to comment on a draft version of this decision.

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What I found

Background

6. Mr X’s complaint is about the Council’s involvement with the care of an extended family member, D, who is nine years old. Mr X believes D’s mother is not caring for them properly and that D is at risk of coming to harm. Mr X says he has asked the Council to assess him and his wife to be D’s carers. He says the Council has not taken his comments on D’s care seriously.
7. Mr X says D’s allocated social worker has not protected D and has ignored D’s statements. He would like the Council to change the allocated social worker.
8. The Council says the Court is currently deciding D’s care arrangements.

Analysis

9. We cannot investigate issues which a Court is deciding. We cannot investigate the Council’s assessment of D’s care or potential carers as the Court is deciding this. It is open to the Court to order an assessment of Mr X as potential carer.
10. We should not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the social worker’s actions. The officer is allocated to a child for whom Mr X does not have parental responsibility for. He is not the most appropriate person to complain on the child’s behalf.

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Final decision

11. We cannot investigate D’s care as the Court is currently deciding this, including who D’s carers should be. We will not investigate D’s allocated social worker’s actions as Mr X does not have parental responsibility for D.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman