Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s involvement in Mr X’s child’s case. The matter is currently subject to family court proceedings and the courts are best placed to make decisions about Mr X’s child’s best interests.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained about the Council’s involvement in his child’s case. His concerns included that it failed to take action, did not communicate properly with him and treated him unfairly based on allegations. He says this has caused him significant distress and impacted his contact with his child. He wants the Council to pay him compensation for damages.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
3. 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:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

6. Mr X complained about the Council’s involvement in his child’s case. The Council told him it would not investigate his complaint because there are currently proceedings ongoing in the family court.
7. It is for the court to make decisions about the child’s residence and contact, and the Ombudsman cannot interfere with the court’s decision. Any concerns Mr X has about the allegations against him should be addressed as part of those proceedings. We also could not come to sound decisions at this time about what impact any fault by the Council had, because the court’s decision will be relevant to any consideration of the matter.
8. Any representations the Council makes to the court would be outside of our jurisdiction. However, there may be parts of Mr X’s complaint that are sufficiently separable from the proceedings. We could not say at this time, however, which parts of the complaint may be within our jurisdiction.
9. It is open to Mr X to complain again to the Council after the private proceedings have completed, and then to the Ombudsman if necessary. We can then consider whether we can and should investigate any elements of the complaint.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is about matters that are currently being considered in court.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman