Summary: We cannot investigate most of Miss X’s complaint about the Council’s actions relating to her child, Y, and the decision to remove Y from her care. This is because the matters relate to issues that have been or could have been considered by a court. We will not investigate the remainder of Miss X’s complaint because we cannot achieve the outcome she wants.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained about the Council’s involvement with her children and the decision to remove her child, Y, from her care.
2. Miss X said the matter caused her distress.
3. Miss X wants the Council to improve its services, return Y to her care, and remove a worker from their post.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
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)
6. We cannot investigate a complaint if it is about a personnel issue. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5a, paragraph 4, as amended)
7. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
8. 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. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

9. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
10. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

11. We cannot investigate most of Miss X’s complaint. The law says we cannot investigate anything that happened in court, or any decisions made by the court. This includes removing Y from Miss X’s care.
12. We cannot achieve the outcome Miss X wants. We have no power to return Y to Miss X’s care. Only a court can do this. Therefore, we will not investigate this matter.
13. We also cannot tell the Council to change the allocated manager or remove them from their post. The law says we have no power to investigate the allocation of personnel. Therefore, we cannot investigate this matter.
14. Any other matters, such as Miss X’s complaint about how the Council removed Y or about how the Council organised contact between Y and Miss X, is likely to have taken place during court proceedings. Therefore, it was reasonable for Miss X to raise these matters with the courts, and we will not investigate these matters.

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Final decision

15. We cannot investigate most of Miss X’s complaint because the matters relate to issues that have been or could have been considered by a court. We will not investigate the remainder of Miss X’s complaint because we cannot achieve the outcome she wants.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman