Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint about child protection because we cannot investigate what happened in court and the issues are intrinsically linked to legal proceedings.

The complaint

1. Mrs Y complained the Council had wrongly placed her children with their other parent, who she says is abusive, and failed to protect them and her from harm. She also complained the Council had submitted biased reports to the court, stopped her from attending meetings and failed to follow Social Work England’s Code of Practice.
2. Mrs Y says this led to her children being sent to live with her ex-partner, exposing them to risk of harm, impacting her mental health. She says she has also been isolated within her local community.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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)
4. We have the power to start or end an investigation into a complaint about actions the law allows us to investigate. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we think the issues could reasonably be, or have been mentioned as part of the legal proceedings regarding a closely related matter. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8), as amended, section 34(B))
5. When we find fault, we can recommend remedies for significant personal injustice, or to prevent future injustice, caused by that fault. We look at organisational fault, not individual professional competence. Decisions about individual’s fitness to practise or work are for the organisations concerned, and for professional regulators, not the Ombudsman. (Local Government Act 1974, s26(1) and s26A(1) as amended)
6. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered information Mrs Y provided and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

8. Mrs Y has complained the Council has wrongly placed her children with their other parent and is concerned for their safety and well-being. She has also complained about issues of bias and defamation, including within court reports and failure to investigate issues of domestic violence to protect her and her children. She has also complained about being excluded from core group meetings, where her children’s child protection plan was discussed.
9. The law prevents us from becoming involved in matters that are or have been the subject of court proceedings. The issues raised are intrinsically linked to the proceedings which are or have already been considered by the courts so we will not investigate. Any contact arrangements and reports for the court have been part of legal proceedings so we do not have the power to investigate these matters. We will not investigate.
10. If Mrs Y wishes to seek changes to the existing arrangements relating to her children’s residence or contact arrangements, she would need to approach the court to raise these issues. We have no power to intervene or make decisions in place of the court. Only the court can decide what is in a child’s best interest and on any matters of dispute. We would consider it reasonable to expect Mrs Y to go to court about such matters.
11. Mrs Y has also complained about the Council failing to follow the Social Work England’s Code of Practice. Our role is to look into the Council’s actions as a corporate body, rather than to investigate any individual. If Mrs Y has concerns about the conduct of a social worker, she can report her concerns to their professional body, Social Work England. We will not investigate.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Mrs Y’s complaint because we cannot investigate what happened in court and the issues are intrinsically linked to legal proceedings.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman