Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about the Council’s actions in its child protection involvement with her child. This is because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to consider her complaint whilst there are ongoing court proceedings.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains about the Council’s actions in its child protection involvement with her child. The matter is subject to ongoing court proceedings. Miss X says she is being treated unfairly by the Council and there are inconsistencies in the court proceedings.

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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))
4. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
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. Miss X complained to the Council about the matters set out in paragraph 1, above.
9. The Council told Miss X it will not consider her complaint via its complaints procedure at this time because the matters she is complaining about are subject to ongoing court proceedings. It has advised Miss X she can resubmit her complaint for consideration once the court proceedings have concluded, but that it cannot consider matters that have been decided in court.
10. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint. This is because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to consider her complaint whilst there are ongoing court proceedings. This is to ensure the proceedings, which must take precedence over a complaint investigation, are not at risk of being prejudiced by a concurrent investigation. It is a decision it has discretion to make, in line with the statutory guidance to local authority children’s services on the handling of complaints where there are ongoing proceedings.
11. As set out in the Council’s response, it will be open to Miss X to resubmit her complaint to the Council once the proceedings have concluded to see whether there are any residual matters it can consider.
12. The law prevents us from considering complaints about matters that are being, or have been considered in court proceedings. We have no discretion to do so.

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Final decision

13. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to investigate her complaint until the ongoing proceedings have concluded.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman