Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint. This is because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to consider her complaint whilst there are ongoing court proceedings.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Miss X, complains about not having contact with her granddaughters who are currently in foster care and about the Council not considering concerns she raised about the 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)
3. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

4. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
5. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
7. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

8. Miss X complained to the Council about not being allowed contact with her grandchildren who were being looked after by foster carers and raised concerns about the children.
9. The Council told Miss X it would not consider her complaint via its complaints procedure due to ongoing court proceedings. These started before Miss X submitted her complaint. It explained it has discretion to decide whether to investigate a complaint where to do so could prejudice ongoing court proceedings. It also explained that contact with the children would be assessed as part of the court proceedings. It advised Miss X to seek independent legal advice in relation to contact with her grandchildren.
10. This is not a complaint we will investigate. This is because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to consider Miss X’s complaint via its complaints procedure until the current court proceedings have concluded. There is nothing further we could add to the Council’s response explaining its decision. The Council has discretion not to consider a complaint where it could prejudice ongoing court proceedings. Once the court proceedings have concluded it will be open to Miss X to ask the Council to consider her complaint.
11. If Miss X remains dissatisfied with the Council’s final response once it has considered her complaint then we can assess it to see if it is a matter we can and should investigate. However, the law prevents us from investigating complaints about matters that are being, or have been, considered in court proceedings. We have no discretion to do so.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint. This is because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to consider her complaint whilst there are ongoing court proceedings.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman