Summary: We will not investigate this complaint that the Council failed to adhere to a care order. This is because we could not add to the Council’s investigation and cannot achieve the outcome she seeks. If the complainant believes that the Council has breached the care order it is reasonable to expect her to raise this matter with the courts.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will call Ms X, complains that the Council has failed to adhere to a court order in place detailing the care arrangements of her children. Ms X says the Council has failed to pursue contact and reconciliate between her and her children and has allowed her children to change their surnames without her permission.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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:

• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

3. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Ms X’s complaint was considered under the statutory procedure for children’s services complaints, a three-stage procedure. It completed all three stages of the procedure and was partially upheld, finding fault in how the Council dealt with the children’s change of surname. The Council agreed to implement recommendations from the panel including to amend its records to reflect the children’s surname.
7. The panel also recommended that the Council consider taking court action to enforce a change of surname. However, the Council said it would not agree to this because of the impact it would have on the children.
8. Ms X says the stage two investigation was flawed because it did not consider all elements of her complaint. However, prior to commencing the stage two investigation the investigator met with Ms X to discuss her complaint and a statement of complaint was agreed and signed by Ms X which containing the three complaints which were considered in the stage two report. The Council has since met with Ms X to discuss any outstanding issues and has told her that she can raise new complaints about some matters, but some it will not consider further as they relate to court proceedings.
9. I will not investigate Ms X’s complaint. This is because there is no prospect that we could add anything significant to the investigation the Council has already carried out.
10. It is not our role to reinvestigate complaints which have already been upheld, or where there is no fault in the way they have been investigated under the statutory procedure. There is no evidence of fault in the way Ms X’s complaint was investigated, and how the Council responded to the fault that was identified was proportionate and in line with what the Ombudsman would seek to achieve in the circumstances of the case.
11. We cannot instruct the Council to commence legal proceedings regarding the children’s name change so cannot achieve the outcome Ms X seeks in this regard.
12. We will also not investigate a complaint when it is reasonable for a complainant to apply to the courts. Ms X feels the actions of the Council are in breach of a care order. As we cannot enforce a court order it is reasonable to expect Ms X to apply to the courts if she considers that her children’s care order has been breached.

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Final decision

13. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because we cannot add to the Council’s investigation or achieve the outcome she seeks. If she feels the Council has breached her children’s care order it is reasonable to expect her to raise the matter with the courts.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman