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

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about the Council’s actions and decisions in its child protection involvement with his child particularly by the social worker allocated to the case and about the impact of this.

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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 do not start 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. The Council responded to Mr X’s complaint at stage one of its complaints procedure. It told Mr X it would not consider his complaint at stage two at present because the issues raised in his complaint are inextricably linked to ongoing court proceedings. It explained it would not consider the complaint further until the proceedings have concluded as to do so could potentially compromise the proceedings.
9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. This is because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to investigate his complaint further 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 the Council 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 including court proceedings.
10. It will be open to Mr X to resubmit his complaint to the Council once the proceedings have concluded to see whether there are any residual matters it can consider which were not, and could not have been, raised and considered as part of the proceedings.
11. The law prevents us from considering complaints about matters that are being, or have been, considered in court proceedings. Such matters lie outside our jurisdiction and we have no discretion to consider them.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to investigate his complaint further whilst there are ongoing court proceedings.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman