Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint about the Council’s involvement with Mr X’s family. The law does not allow us to investigate matters that are or have been subject to court proceedings.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained about actions the Council took while involved with his family. Mr X also complained about the Council’s refusal to consider his complaint under the children’s act statutory complaint’s procedure.
2. Mr X said the Council’s actions caused impact to the relationship between him and his family and caused a financial impact. Mr X the Council’s refusal to consider his complaint caused distress.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. 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)
5. 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))
6. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered information provided by the complainant.
8. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

9. Mr X complained about actions the Council took during its involvement with his family. Mr X specifically referred to the actions of social workers, such as them showing bias, omitting information from assessments and making prejudicial statements. The social workers were involved with the family leading up to court proceedings.
10. The complaints related to actions taken between May 2023 to June 2024 when the Council’s involvement with the family ended. Mr X said the court proceedings ended in June 2025 and he raised his complaint with the Council in July 2025.
11. As outlined in paragraph four, the law says we cannot investigate complaints about court proceedings. In this case, the substantive matters raised by Mr X were considered by court or could have reasonably been raised at court.
12. Furthermore, we will not consider the Council’s decision to decline a complaint from Mr X. It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue.

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Final decision

13. We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint because the law says we cannot investigate matters that are or have been subject to court proceedings.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman