Hampshire County Council (25 000 481)
Category : Children's care services > Child protection
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 20 May 2025
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s children services involvement in Court proceedings.
The complaint
- Mr X complains about children services’ actions.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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).
- We may investigate complaints made on behalf of someone else if they have given their consent. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26A(1), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Mr X which included the Council’s reply to him.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr X says his son’s relationship with the mother of their children broke down in 2018. He says court proceedings followed about contact between his son and the children. He says these lasted for many years. He complained to the Council in 2024 about the Council’s involvement. In his complaint to us he complains about:
- The Council’s adherence to court timescales.
- The content of its evidence given to Court.
- The comments made by the children’s court appointed guardian and the judges involved about the Council’s approach and opinions.
- What he sees as Council bias against his son.
- We cannot investigate issues which are involved in court proceedings. This includes the four points above.
- Any issues Mr X has which are unconnected to the Court proceedings would normally need consent from a parent of the children for us to consider.
Final decision
- We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint because we cannot investigate issues which are about court proceedings.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman