Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint about how the Council treated Mrs X when she sought to complain about a safeguarding matter. A legal bar prevents us investigating the substantive matter underlying the complaint, and a court ruling prevents us investigating how the Council dealt with Mrs X’s complaint about it.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complained that the Council refused to deal with her complaint about how it treated her when she tried to raise a safeguarding matter. She said this was three children being in care with a man she said had been previously charged with serious offences against children. She said the Council warned her that if she tried to raise concerns again she would be deemed “vexatious”. She said the “warning letter” included deeply offensive statements about her. She said the Council had since rejected all her attempts to pursue the matter.

Back to top

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 a complaint if someone has started court action about the matter. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended).
4. The Courts have said that we cannot investigate a complaint about any action by a council, concerning a matter which is itself out of our jurisdiction. (R (on the application of M) v Commissioner for Local Administration [2006] EHWCC 2847 (Admin)).

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

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

Back to top

My assessment

7. We cannot investigate complaints about how the Council has handled complaints where the substantive matter underlying them is itself outside our legal powers.
8. In this case the substantive matter is the placement of three children. This has been the subject of a court order. Were the parent of the children to ask us to investigate their safety in the placement, we could not do so. The involvement of the court places an absolute legal bar against us doing so. Only a court could order alternative arrangements and we would advise the parent they should return to court. That the parent has now provided consent for Mrs X to act as her representative in a complaint to us does not change that.

The Council’s actions concerning Mrs X arise solely from its underlying involvement with the children. Her complaint is therefore in direct consequence of a dispute about matters we cannot investigate. It follows that we cannot investigate her complaint about how it treated her when she sought to raise the safeguarding matter, or about the Council‘s responses to her attempts to do so.

Back to top

Final decision

9. We cannot investigate Mrs X’s complaint because:

• The substantive matters underlying the complaint are ones we are legally barred from investigating; and
• The courts have ruled that we cannot investigate complaints about the actions of a council concerning matters that are outside our jurisdiction.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman