Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about his supervised contact with his children. We cannot achieve the outcome he seeks of this being unsupervised.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Mr X, says children service’s staff have acted unfairly and hindered his contact with his children.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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 do not start an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. The Council holds a child protection plan for Mr X’s children. As part of that plan Mr X says his contact with his children is supervised. He thinks this is wrong. He says the Council’s social workers have been unfair to him. He says they have made wrong accusations against him.
6. The Council says:
• it has no evidence the officers have been unfair;
• he has the chance to explain his case at the child protection conferences;
• family time has been created within the child protection plan;
• if he is unhappy with the contact he will need to consider seeking legal advice.

Analysis

7. The Council has no power to control contact between Mr X and his children. Only the Courts or anyone with parental responsibility can prevent Mr X’s contact. Our investigation could not achieve the outcome he seeks of unsupervised contact with his children.
8. Our role is to investigate the actions of the Council as a corporate body, not to hold a single officer accountable. If Mr X has concerns about the professionalism or integrity of an individual social worker, it is reasonable to expect him to report his concerns to their professional body, Social Work England.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we cannot achieve the outcome he seeks of unsupervised contact.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman