Summary: We cannot investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s children services team involvement with her family. The Court considered and decided the care of the child concerned and we cannot investigate matters contained in legal proceedings.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Mrs X, says the Council’s children services team completed an inaccurate assessment on her and her family, failed to support her and the decisions on her grandchild’s care are wrong.

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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)
4. 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. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered the information Mrs X provided with her complaint and the Council’s reply to her. I considered Mrs X’s comments on a draft version of this decision.

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What I found

6. Mrs X is the maternal grandmother to a child, B. The Council had concerns about B’s care and asked the Court in early July 2020 to decide B’s care arrangements. It granted an interim Care Order, which gave the Council powers to care for B. In November 2020, Mrs X asked the Court to be part of those proceedings. She filed a statement to the Court. In January 2021, it rejected her application.
7. Mrs X says the Council has not assessed her or her family properly as carers for B. She says the decision to remove B from the family’s care was wrong. She says the Council should have supported her attempts to be part of the Court proceedings. She says the Court decisions were made in haste and with bias. She says the assessments should be reviewed. She wants the Council to provide a better support package to her family so that they can care for B. She says B’s health has been badly affected by the events.
8. Mrs X complained to the Council. It refused to reply to her within its complaints’ procedure. It said all the issues had been part of the Court proceedings.

Analysis

9. We cannot investigate matters decided by the courts. This means we cannot investigate whether B’s current care arrangements are right, whether B should have been removed from the family or the contact B has with the extended family.
10. We cannot criticise the Council for deciding to apply to the Court, or consider any complaint about the way Court proceedings were conducted. Any such criticism would be for the Court, which may also issue sanctions and make awards of costs.
11. We cannot investigate the preparation, collation, and analysis of evidence, including reports written by social workers or other officers for court proceedings. Nor can we investigate the use of a report written previously, in later court proceedings and evidence given by the Council’s officers in any proceedings. This means we cannot investigate the assessments Mrs X complains about.

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Final decision

12. We cannot investigate this complaint. This is because the issues involved have been part of Court proceedings.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman