West Northamptonshire Council (24 022 864)
Category : Children's care services > Child protection
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 05 May 2025
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s actions in completing a court ordered assessment. This is because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to consider his complaint until the ongoing court proceedings have concluded.
The complaint
- The complainant, Mr X, complains the Council failed to complete a court ordered assessment for ongoing family court proceedings within the deadline set by the court. He also complains the Council completed the assessment without his input or involvement.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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)
- We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr X complained to the Council about the matters set out in paragraph one, above.
- The Council told Mr X it would place his complaint on hold until the ongoing court proceedings on the case have concluded in order to prevent any risk of prejudicing the court proceedings.
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. This is because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to consider his complaint until the ongoing court proceedings have concluded. As set out in the Council’s response, this is a decision it is entitled to make, to ensure the proceedings are not at risk of being prejudiced by a concurrent complaint investigation. It has acted in line with the statutory guidance to local authority children’s services on the handling of complaints where there are ongoing proceedings. It will be open to Mr X to resubmit his complaint to the Council for consideration once the proceedings have concluded. The Council will then decide whether there are any matters it can consider which were not, and could not have been, considered and decided by the court.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to consider his complaint whilst there are ongoing court proceedings.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman