Summary: We will not investigate this complaint that the Council failed to properly consider the complainant’s concerns about the placement of her children with their father. This is because the complaint concerns matters which have been considered and decided in court, or are closely related to such matters.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mrs X, complains that the Council failed to properly consider her concerns about the placement of her children with their father and that, as a result, they came to harm.

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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. 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. The courts have said we can decide not to investigate a complaint about any action by an organisation concerning a matter which the law says we cannot investigate. (R (on the application of M) v Commissioner for Local Administration [2006] EHWCC 2847 (Admin))

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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. Mrs X says her children were in the care of their father and his partner in 2022 and 2023. She says she expressed concerns to the Council about their welfare at the time, and complains that it failed to give her views sufficient weight and failed to act to safeguard the children.
8. Mrs X says the children subsequently came to harm and were removed from their father’s care. She wants the Council to acknowledge that it failed to take proper account of her views and that it failed to properly assess the risk posed by the children’s father and his partner.
9. The Ombudsman will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because it concerns matters which were considered and decided in court. The correspondence shows that the decision to place the children with their father was made by a court in the course of private law proceedings. The Council subsequently decided to challenge this placement and took public law action to have the children removed from their father’s care. The decisions about who the children lived with were made by the courts, not the Council.
10. The law prevents the Ombudsman from considering what happened in court. We have no discretion on this point. The courts have held that this restriction also prevents us from investigating evidence the court considered, including reports submitted by councils, and other matters closely related to what was considered in court. This means we will not investigate matters relating to who Mrs X’s children lived with, including the actions of the Council, as this was considered and decided in court.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because it concerns matters which have been considered and decided in court, or are closely related to such matters.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman