Summary: We will not investigate the complainants complaint about the Council’s handling of his daughter’s child protection case. This is because it is late.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I shall refer to as Mr C, complains that the Council’s children’s services team failed to respond to safeguarding concerns he raised about his daughter, and has failed to help him have contact with his daughter.

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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 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)
4. 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)
5. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

6. I have considered Mr C’s complaint and the Council’s response. I have invited Mr C to comment on a draft version of this decision.

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What I found

What happened

7. Mr C has a daughter who is subject to a child protection plan and who lives with her mother.
8. In November 2017, Mr C complained to the Council about its children’s services teams involvement in his family. Mr C submitted further complaints during 2018.
9. Mr C complained that the Council had not taken safeguarding concerns which he had raised about his daughter seriously. He also complained that the Council had failed to ensure he had contact with his daughter.
10. In December 2018, the Council issued a final response. It said that appropriate measures were in place to protect his daughter, and that there was no basis for it to take any further action. The Council said if Mr C was dissatisfied with the response, he could raise his complaint with the Ombudsman.
11. The Council said that it could not intervene regarding contact between Mr C and his daughter, because this was due to be decided by the courts.

Assessment

12. I will not investigate Mr C’s complaint about the Council’s children’s services teams involvement with his family because Mr C’s complaint is late.
13. We normally expect people to complain to us within twelve months of becoming aware of a problem, and do not exercise discretion to look at late complaints unless there is good reason to do so.
14. In this case, I see no reason why Mr C could not have raised his complaint with us much sooner.
15. But even if Mr C’s complaint were not late, we would still not investigate his complaint about access to his daughter. This is because this was decided in court, and we cannot consider anything which forms part of legal proceedings.

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Final decision

16. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because the complaint is late.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman