Summary: We cannot investigate Mrs X’s complaint about her son being removed from her care and contact with him being stopped, because it lies outside our jurisdiction. The law prevents us from investigating complaints about matters that are being considered and decided in court. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about her son having bruises in his foster care placement. This is because there is nothing we could add to the Council’s previous investigation on this.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Mrs X, complained about her child being removed from her care and contact stopped. The matter is subject to ongoing court proceedings. Mrs X also complained her son had bruises whilst in his previous foster placement.

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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 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)
4. 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)
5. We do not start an investigation if we decide we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

8. The Council told Mrs X it cannot consider her complaint about her son being removed from her care and contact being stopped via its complaints procedure. This is because the matter is subject to ongoing court proceedings. It has advised Mrs X she can resubmit her complaint once the court proceedings have concluded. However, it cannot consider court matters.
9. The same restriction also applies to this office. The law prevents the Ombudsman from investigating complaints about matters that are being, or have been, considered in court.
10. Mrs X also complained her son had bruises whilst in his foster care placement.
11. The Council investigated this concern. A social worker fully examined Mrs X’s son’s body. There was a single small faint bruise on his knee which the carer explained had happened when he was playing on a slide. No further bruises have been observed since. The Council had no concerns following its investigation.
12. I do not see that an investigation by this office would be able to add to the response provided via the Council’s previous investigation.

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Final decision

13. We cannot investigate Mrs X’s complaint about her son being removed from her care, and contact being stopped because it lies outside our jurisdiction. The matter is subject to court proceedings. The law prevents us from considering complaints about such matters. We have no discretion to do so.
14. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about her son having bruises because there is nothing we could add to the Council’s previous investigation and response on this.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman