Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council responded to concerns Mrs X raised about her ex-husband. That is because there is insufficient evidence of fault in how the Council considered the complaint and it was reasonable for Mrs X to have raised her concerns in Court.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complained the Council failed to take safeguarding action after she told it her ex-husband had provided incorrect information about their daughter, Y to the GP. She said the GP then wrote a letter containing factually incorrect information which was used as part of private court proceedings. She said that resulted in the Court ending her contact with Y.
2. Mrs X said the information provided by her ex-husband meant that her daughter did not receive an assessment for autistic spectrum condition (ASC). She wants her daughter to have an assessment for autism and the Council to assess whether Y has been deliberately cut off from her family.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
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. 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)
6. The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
8. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

9. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint against the Council for the following reasons.
• The concerns that Mrs X raised with the Council were part of private Court proceedings. We have no jurisdiction to investigate matters or information provided as part of Court proceedings.
• If Mrs X thought the Council’s inaction to address her concerns could have affected the Court outcome, or if she wanted to challenge the inaccuracy of information provided to the Court, it was reasonable to have expected her to have raised this with the Court.
• The Council considered the information provided by Mrs X and decided that it would have been reasonable for her to raise her concerns as part of the Court process. There is insufficient evidence fault in how the Council made that decision to justify further investigation.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because it was reasonable for her to have raised her concerns in Court and there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman