Summary: We cannot investigate Miss X’s complaint about the Council’s actions in its child protection involvement with her family. The complaint lies outside our jurisdiction because it is about matters that have been subject to court proceedings. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about historic matters. This lies outside our jurisdiction because it is late and there are no good grounds to exercise discretion to consider it now.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Miss X, complains about the Council’s actions in its child protection involvement with her family over several years which led to her children being removed from her care. Miss X says her family has been failed by children’s services, there was a conflict of interest and she has been the victim of confirmation bias. Miss X also complained about historic events when she was a child in the Council’s care.

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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 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)
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)

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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

7. The Council told Miss X it would not consider her complaint via its complaints procedure. This is because it was about matters that had been considered in court proceedings and happened over 12 months ago.
8. We cannot investigate Miss X’s complaint about the Council’s child protection actions in relation to her children. It lies outside our jurisdiction because it is about matters that have been subject to court proceedings. The law prevents us from investigating complaints about such matters and we have no discretion to choose to do so.
9. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about historic matters which happened when Miss X was a child in the Council’s care. These matters lie outside our jurisdiction because they are late. There are no good reasons to exercise discretion to consider this part of the complaint now. Due to the very significant passage of time since the events complained about I cannot see there is any realistic prospect of us being able to carry out a meaningful investigation and reach a reliable and sound view on those events now. Changes in guidance, practice, legislation and staff over time would also impact our ability to carry out a meaningful investigation.

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Final decision

10. We cannot investigate Miss X’s complaint about the Council’s child protection involvement with her family because it lies outside our jurisdiction and the law says we cannot consider it. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about historic matters. These lie outside our jurisdiction because they are late and there are no good grounds to consider it now.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman