Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a child and family assessment carried out by the Council. This is because we can achieve nothing significant by doing so.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will refer to as Mr B, complains that the Council is at fault in producing an inaccurate assessment and in failing to take proper account of his concerns about the care of his son. As a result of the fault on the Council’s part he no longer has contact with his son.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Mr B’s son lives with his mother. Mr B says he and his son’s mother previously shared care of the child. Following an incident between Mr B and his son, the Council carried out a child and family assessment. Mr B says the social worker acted with bias against him and produced an inaccurate report. He also says the Council failed to take proper account of his concerns that his son’s mother is emotionally abusing him.
6. Mr B says the result of the flawed assessment is that the Council has prevented him from having contact with his son. He says he wants the Council to accept that he has done nothing wrong and to explore with his son why he no longer wants contact with his father.
7. The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr B’s complaint because there is nothing to be gained from doing so. The child and family assessment properly sets out the process on which its conclusions are based. There are no grounds for the Ombudsman to question their merits, however strongly Mr B disagrees with them, or to intervene to substitute an alternative view. The most we would seek to achieve in the circumstances of this case is that a record of Mr B’s dissenting views are added to the file. The evidence indicates that has already happened.
8. It is also the case that the Council’s intervention has not led to the outcome Mr B claims. The Council is entitled to express a view on contact, and should take account of the child’s wishes, but it cannot impose any specific arrangement without a court order. It is for the Court to decide whether contact is appropriate. If Mr B wishes to change the current contact arrangements, he may take the matter to Court. There is no role for the Ombudsman.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mr B’s complaint because we can achieve nothing significant by doing so.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman