Summary: Mr X complained that the Council failed to safeguard his children when they moved into its area. Mr X would like the social workers involved to be dismissed. We cannot achieve the outcome Mr X wants. Therefore, we have discontinued the investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained the Council failed to adequately safeguard his children when they moved into the Council area.
2. Mr X said he lost his faith in the Council and has been caused great distress.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Ombudsman cannot investigate whether social workers are meeting their professional standards of conduct. Complaints of this nature should be referred to the social workers’ professional body, Social Work England.
4. 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:

• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants, and
• there is another body better placed to consider this complaint.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

5. If we are satisfied with an organisation’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered evidence provided by Mr X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
7. Mr X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments before making a final decision.

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What I found

What happened

8. The following information is relevant to the complaint Mr X made. This is not a list of everything that happened.
9. Mr X and his children’s mother are not in a relationship. I will refer to the children’s mother as Ms Y. Mr X and Ms Y have two children together.
10. Ms Y left the home authority area, with the children in February 2024. Ms Y went to live with family in the Council area. At this point children’s services were involved with the children and making assessment of the children’s safety.
11. Once the Council received the necessary information from the home authority it continued to assess the children’s safety.
12. Mr X instructed a solicitor regarding family law matters.
13. Over the next few months Mr X raised concerns about incidents that he believed took place at Ms Y’s home.
14. In July Mr X complained to the Council. In summary, he complained about:
• The Council’s failure to safeguard his children,
• The Council’s failure to communicate with him properly,
• The conduct of the children’s social worker, and
• The Councils approach to completing the assessment of the children.
15. In August 2024 the Council made a response to Mr X at stage one of its complaint procedure. In summary, it said:
• It took appropriate action to safeguard the children, sharing detail of this in the response,
• It was at fault for failing to communicate properly with Mr X. It told him about the action it had taken to address this and apologised,
• It approached the assessment of the children fairly, responding to concerns shared properly, and
• Mr X was welcome to spend more time talking with management about his concerns.
16. The Council told Mr X it allocated a new social worker to work with his children. It apologised. It told Mr X about steps it had taken to make sure he did not experience poor communication from the Council again. It said it would not assign a new team manager to oversee his children’s case, but offered time to talk with management, to try to resolve any outstanding issues. The Council signposted Mr X to the next stage of the complaint procedure, and to the Ombudsman.
17. Mr X was unhappy with the response and escalated his complaint to stage two of the Councils complaint procedure.
18. In September a senior leader from the Council spoke with Mr X. A few days later the Council made its response to Mr X at stage two of its complaint procedure. It apologised again to Mr X, and highlighted a learning point it would take forward following the telephone call with Mr X a few days earlier. It signposted Mr X to the Ombudsman.
19. In October Mr X complained to the Ombudsman. He said he wanted the social workers involved to be reprimanded for their poor professional conduct. He was unhappy with the actions of the social workers involved.

My findings

20. We have discontinued this investigation because of the following reasons:
• we are unable to investigate the conduct of social workers. Social Work England investigates conduct of social workers. This is not a matter the Ombudsman can consider.
• the outcome Mr X wants is not achievable by us, and
• there is another body better placed to consider Mr X’s complaint. Mr X can refer his complaint to Social Work England, should he want to pursue it further.

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Decision

21. The investigation has been discontinued.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman