Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s actions in its child protection involvement with his child. The complaint lies outside our jurisdiction because it is late and there are no good reasons to exercise discretion to consider it now. Also, the law prevents us from investigating complaints about matters that have been subject to court proceedings. We have no discretion to do so.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about the Council’s actions in its child protection involvement with his child in 2021 to 2022 which led to his child being placed for adoption. Mr X says the Council’s involvement played a part in ruining his life.

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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 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)
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)

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
7. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

8. Mr X complained to the Council about these matters in 2022. The case was considered in court proceedings which also concluded in 2022. The Council issued its final response to the complaint in August 2022 and signposted Mr X to this office if he remained dissatisfied with its response.
9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. It lies outside our jurisdiction because it is late. The law says a complaint should be made to us within 12 months of the person affected first becoming aware of the matter. This complaint to us is very late and I see no good reasons to exercise discretion to consider it now.
10. Further to this, the issues raised in the complaint largely relate to matters that have been subject to, and considered in, court proceedings. We could not have considered those matters even if the complaint had been made to us within 12 months. The law prevents us from investigating complaints about matters that are being, or have been, considered in court. We have no discretion to do so. This restriction also means we cannot consider complaints about evidence or reports that have been prepared for and considered by the court.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it lies outside our jurisdiction and there are no good grounds to consider it now.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman