Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint about the Council’s response to concerns about the welfare of the complainant’s daughter. This is because the complaint concerns matters which are not separable from matters considered in court.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will refer to as Mr X, complains that the Council produced an inaccurate Child and Family Assessment and failed to investigate a safeguarding concern he raised about his daughter.

Back to top

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. 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)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

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

Back to top

My assessment

5. Mr X’s daughter lives with her maternal family and he has contact with her. Mr X raised a concern about his daughter’s welfare with the Council. He complains that it failed to investigate the concern.
6. The Council’s social worker produced a Child and Family Assessment. Mr X says the assessment is inaccurate, and falsely accuses him of emotionally abusing his daughter. He says the Council’s views led the maternal family to begin unnecessary private law proceedings in the Family Court, as a result of which he was denied contact with his daughter for four months.
7. Mr X wants the Council to remove the assessment from the case record and for another social worker to reinvestigate the matter. He also wants the Council to reimburse the legal costs he incurred, as he believes it is responsible for the fact that the legal action took place.
8. The Ombudsman cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint because it relates to matters which have been considered and decided in court. The law says we cannot investigate such matters. This restriction applies to evidence which forms part of the court case. Mr X has provided a letter from the Children and Family Court and Support Service which shows that this applies to the assessment. This means we cannot consider its content.
9. The Court considered the welfare of Mr X’s daughter. His safeguarding concern is not therefore separable from what was considered in court. This places it outside the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction. There is no discretion available to us on this point.
10. Even if we could consider the content of the assessment, we could not achieve what Mr X wants. We will not normally ask for assessments to be removed from a council’s files or changed retrospectively because they reflect the position at the time they were written. The most we will normally ask a council to do is to include a record of a complainant’s contrary views on the file. Mr X has set out his views in his complaint to the Council, so our intervention is not required. If Mr X believes the files contain inaccurate information about him, he may pursue his legal right to rectification.
11. There are no grounds for us to ask the Council to reimburse Mr X for costs incurred in private law proceedings. Only a court can decide liability for legal costs.

Back to top

Final decision

12. We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint because it concerns matters which are not separable from matters which have been considered in court.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman