Summary: We will not investigate this late complaint from Ms X about a child protection investigation. There is not a good reason for the delay in bringing the matter to the Ombudsman.

The complaint

1. Ms X said the Council refused to accept her complaint about the behaviour of social services during a child protection investigation in 2018 that resulted in her children being removed. Ms X said this experience has ruined her life and she wanted to resume a relationship with her children.

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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.
3. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council/care provider has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
4. 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)
5. We have the power to start or end an investigation into a complaint about actions the law allows us to investigate. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we think the issues could reasonably be, or have been mentioned as part of the legal proceedings regarding a closely related matter. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information Ms X provided and the Ombudsman’s Assessment

Code.

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My assessment

7. Ms X’s children were removed from her care in 2018. She said she had evidence that social services had lied and spoken to her inappropriately. She said that when she had tried to complain to the Council, it had refused to accept her concerns as a formal complaint. The Council said Ms X had left it too long to complain, but it would ask its Safeguarding Lead to reply to the concerns she had raised.
8. The law says people should bring complaints to us within 12 months of becoming aware of the matter. The 12-month timescale in this case would have run until 2019. There is not a good reason for the delay in Ms X bringing the matter to us and there is no prospect of a meaningful investigation at this late stage. The complaint is therefore late and there is not a good reason for us to investigate it.
9. In any event, we would not investigate Ms X’s complaint. This is because it concerns the circumstances under which the Council gained care of the children. This decision would have been made by the courts and, as such, is something we cannot investigate. We cannot change the court’s decision. We have no power to investigate the Council’s representations to court, and we also would not investigate anything Ms X could have raised during those proceedings.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman