Kent County Council (21 000 291)
Category : Children's care services > Child protection
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 01 Jun 2021
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We cannot investigate Ms X’s complaint about a court report completed by the Council because it lies outside our jurisdiction. The law prevents us from investigating matters that are being considered in court proceedings.
The complaint
- The complainant, whom I shall call Ms X, complains about a court report the Council has completed, in relation to her children.
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)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered the information Ms X provided. I sent Ms X a draft of my decision and invited her comments on it.
What I found
- Ms X complains about a court report the Council has completed in relation to her children. Ms X says the report is biased against her, in favour of her childrens’ father and ignores her concerns. Ms X says parts of the report solely reflect her ex husband’s comments and she believes this could jeopardise the judge’s ability to make a fair decision. Ms X questions the officer’s ability to complete the assessment report as he is only recently qualified.
- Ms X complained to the Council about the report. The Council told Ms X it was unable to consider her complaint at present due to the ongoing legal proceedings.
Final decision
- We cannot investigate this complaint. It lies outside our jurisdiction because it is about a matter that is being considered in ongoing court proceedings. The law prevents us from considering matters that are being, or have been, considered in court. We have no discretion to do so.
- Any dissatisfaction with the contents of the report should be raised in court during the proceedings so they can be considered by the court before it makes a final decision.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman