Summary: We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint about children services’ actions as there are ongoing Court proceedings.

The complaint

1. Mr X says the Council’s children services team has failed to protect his children from coercive and controlling behaviour and has failed to provide them with support.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
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))

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by the Mr X which included the Council’s reply to him.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. Mr X says the Council in 2022 and 2023 failed to provide the support his family needed. We cannot investigate events known to Mr X for more than 12 months unless there are good reasons to ignore the late complaint rule. There are no sufficient reasons here.
8. Mr X says the Council has continued to fail to provide support. He says a Court criticised the information officers gave it. He says the Court has said the Council should provide more support.
9. There are ongoing Court proceedings about the care of Mr X’s children. We cannot investigate any of the evidence or information Council officers have given to the Court. We cannot investigate the preparation of that information.
10. In family proceedings such as those deciding a child’s care, the Court has wide powers to order the Council to assess a family and provide support. We cannot interfere with those powers. It is reasonable to expect Mr X to ask the Court to order the support he believes the Council needs.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we cannot investigate issues which are, or could be, part of Court proceedings.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman