Wakefield City Council (22 001 879)
Category : Children's care services > Child protection
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 19 May 2022
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We cannot investigate Miss X’s complaint about her daughter being removed from her care and later adopted. The complaint lies outside our jurisdiction because it is about a matter that has been considered and decided in court proceedings. The law prevents us from considering such matters, we have no discretion to do so.
The complaint
- The complainant, whom I shall call Miss X, complains the Council removed her daughter from her care in 2016 and in 2019 she was adopted. Miss X says she was also stopped from caring for her niece and nephews. Miss X would like the matter to go back to court and to have her daughter returned to her care.
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 information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- The Council has told Miss X this is not a matter it can consider via its complaints procedure. This is because it was a decision made by the courts and any issues relating to the social workers and her daughter’s adoption should have been raised in court during the proceedings. It was also outside the timescales for making a complaint. It advised Miss X to seek legal advice on the matter, which it understood she was already doing.
Final decision
- We cannot investigate Miss X’s complaint because it lies outside our jurisdiction. The law prevents us from considering complaints about matters that have been subject to court proceedings, such as this. We have no discretion to do so. We cannot challenge or question the court’s decision. Any challenge to the court’s decision needs to be made via the courts.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman