Summary: We cannot investigate Ms X’s complaint about her son being removed from her care because it lies outside our jurisdiction. The law prevents us from considering complaints about matters that have been considered and decided in court. We have no discretion to do so.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Ms X, complains her son has been removed from her care following court proceedings and she now only has limited, supervised contact with him. Ms X says her son was removed from her care due to false allegations about her mental health.

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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 effect 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 an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
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)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

7. Ms X complains her son has been removed from her care and she now has only limited, supervised contact with him.
8. The Council told Ms X it could not consider her complaint because it was about matters that had been considered and decided in recent court proceedings and that Ms X could or should have raised her concerns to the court during the proceedings. It explained it cannot investigate or overturn the court’s decisions.
9. We cannot investigate Ms X’s complaint because it lies outside our jurisdiction. The law prevents us from investigating complaints about matters that have been considered in court. We have no discretion to do so.

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Final decision

10. We cannot investigate Ms X’s complaint because it lies outside our jurisdiction and we have no discretion to consider it.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman