Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the actions of the Council’s children’s services. Many of the issues raised happened too long ago or were considered in court proceedings. We could not add to the Council’s investigation into parts of the complaint that the Council upheld and there is insufficient evidence of fault in how it dealt with other matters.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains about how the Council dealt with her and her children going back several years. Ms X says the Council’s actions has caused her distress and have impacted her 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 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:

• 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))

3. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
4. 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 has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
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. Decisions about the care of Ms X’s children have been made by the courts with a Special Guardianship Order being issued in 2016 and further decisions around the care of her children being made recently.
9. I will not investigate the Council’s actions going back several years because any complaint about these matters is made late and I see no good reason why it could not have been made sooner. Furthermore, the matters raised have been considered during court proceedings which places them outside of our jurisdiction.
10. Ms X has complained to the Council about recent issues separate from court proceedings. The Council has accepted that it hadn’t always provided Ms X with updates about her children and that there wasn’t a clear plan in place for family time. It has agreed to put an action plan in place to address this and to provide Ms X with any significant updates. These actions are appropriate and proportionate and therefore further investigation is unlikely to add to the investigation carried out by the Council.
11. The Council considered if family therapy is appropriate but has concluded that at present it is not the right time for Ms X’s children but will keep this under review. It has also considered Ms X’s complaint that her daughter has not received all her possessions, it spoke to her daughter and found that she had everything she needed. I see no evidence of fault in how the Council dealt with either of these matters so will not investigate them further.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because most issues raised happened too long ago or were considered in court proceedings. We could not add to the Council’s investigation into parts of the complaint that the Council upheld and there is insufficient evidence of fault in how it dealt with other matters.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman