Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s involvement in child protection proceedings. Parts of the complaint are about the Council’s representations to the court, which we have no power to investigate. All other parts of the complaint are too intertwined with the court process, and are matters that were reasonable for Miss X to raise during the proceedings.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained about the Council’s involvement in her child’s case, including the social worker falsifying pre-birth assessment records and behaving unprofessionally during meetings. Miss X said the matter has caused her significant distress and has impacted her health. She wanted false records removed and financial compensation.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
3. 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))
4. We normally expect someone to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner if they have a complaint about data protection. However, we may decide to investigate if we think there are good reasons. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

Matters we cannot investigate

7. We cannot investigate what happens during court proceedings. This includes the content of councils’ reports submitted to court and their representations about a child’s best interests and parents’ ability to care for their children.
8. Parts of Miss X’s complaint relate to the substance of the Council’s representations to court and are therefore directly about what happened in court. For example, she alleges:
• the Council’s report to court included incorrect information about her child having been subject to secondary neglect; and
• the Council wrongly said the reason for it not arranging courses and assessments was that the parents would not engage, despite evidence they had engaged in other things such as drug testing.
9. Miss X also complains about decisions by the court relating to who could have contact with the child during proceedings.
10. We have no power in law to investigate these complaints.
11. It is open to Miss X to approach the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in relation to her allegation the Council holds false information on its records. The ICO is the body that deals with concerns about how organisations handle people’s personal data, and right to rectification requests under the General Data Protection Regulation.

Matters we will not investigate

12. Parts of the complaint are about other matters that may be separable from the proceedings. I have therefore considered these complaints in more detail to decide whether we should investigate them.
13. Elements of Miss X’s complaint relate to an alleged lack of professionalism by the social worker. She says they did not let Miss X explain her version of events at child protection conferences, interrupted her and hung up on her during calls. Miss X therefore felt her voice was not heard or represented fairly.
14. Miss X also complains about the Council failing to provide courses and psychological assessments it promised, and refusing to change the social worker.
15. The substantive claimed injustice that would result from these complaints is ultimately the outcome of the court proceedings. While Miss X also says she experienced significant distress, that distress was secondary to the central impact which was the court deciding to place her child up for adoption. Ultimately, these complaints are not sufficiently separable from the court proceedings and we will not investigate them.
16. Miss X complained about an incident in a contact centre, which culminated in the police attending. Miss X took this matter up with the police as she claimed an assault had taken place. While the police decided not to pursue the matter further, we will not consider it as we cannot investigate allegations of assault.
17. The above complaints are all matters it would have been reasonable for Miss X to raise during the proceedings, if she did not, as they are relevant to the judge’s decision which was based on all parties’ representations. We will not investigate any parts of Miss X’s complaint for this reason.

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Final decision

18. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because parts of the complaint are about the Council’s representations to the court, which we have no power to investigate. All other parts of the complaint are too intertwined with the court process, and are matters that were reasonable for Miss X to raise during the proceedings.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman