Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about the Council’s decision not to consider her complaint about a social worker whilst there are ongoing family court proceedings. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council to warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains about the Council’s decision not to consider her complaint about serious misconduct by the social worker allocated to her children’s case until ongoing family court proceedings have concluded. Miss X says her complaint is about matters separate to the court proceedings and the Council has not assessed these matters independently, as required.

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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. 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))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. The Council told Miss X it will not consider her complaint via its complaints procedure until the ongoing family court proceedings have concluded. It explained its reasons and signposted Miss X to this office.
7. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint. This is because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to investigate her complaint whilst there are ongoing court proceedings. It is a decision the Council is entitled to make. The decision has been made in line with the statutory guidance to local authority children’s services on the handling of complaints where there are ongoing proceedings, including court proceedings. This gives it discretion to decide not to investigate a complaint whilst there are ongoing proceedings to ensure the proceedings are not at risk of being prejudiced by a concurrent complaint investigation. The Council confirmed in its response to Miss X that it considered the issues raised in Miss X’s complaint and decided it could not consider them via its complaints process without affecting the ongoing proceedings.
8. The Council has confirmed it will be open to Miss X to resubmit her complaint for consideration once the proceedings have concluded, but that it cannot consider any matters that have been decided in court.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council to warrant an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman