Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council failing to protect Ms X and her daughter from witchcraft manipulation and spiritual abuse. Doing so would not lead to a different or better outcome than that provided by the Council’s investigation.

The complaint

1. Ms X said the Council failed to protect her and her daughter from witchcraft manipulation and abuse by a former pastor. She said it failed to understand her complaint from a cultural and religious perspective. She said both she and her daughter suffered trauma as a result of the witchcraft and spiritual abuse, and she had to leave her job.

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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 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 continue an investigation if we decide:

• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants, or
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.

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

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. The complaint correspondence shows the Council accepted some fault in the way it dealt with Ms X’s complaint It apologised and offered Ms X a sum in recognition of this. However, it said its actions did not affect its child protection decisions, which it said were based on the categories of abuse recognised under the Children Act 1989.
6. There are several categories of harm that a council with child protection duties may find a child has suffered or is at risk from. I note the Council took action to protect Ms X’s child after a disclosure of abuse within the categories set out. Witchcraft and spiritual abuse are not distinct categories of harm that social workers can include in assessments. However, where an allegation involves the claimed use of witchcraft or any other religious belief to cause harm or risk or harm under one of the recognised categories, the resulting harm or risk can be identified by a council.
7. An investigation by us could only consider if the Council acted properly in deciding whether a child was harmed or at risk of harm under one the categories of abuse set out. As witchcraft and spiritual abuse are not among those categories, we could not find the Council should have decided whether a child had been abused by someone using spirits or witchcraft alone. An academic awareness or cultural appreciation of beliefs about spirits or witchcraft could not create a specific ground for a finding using such terms. The evidence I have seen does not suggest there was fault by the Council in considering the possibility of abuse under the recognised categories.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because doing so would be unlikely to lead to a different or better outcome than that provided by the Council’s own investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman