Summary: We cannot investigate Miss X’s complaint about the Council’s handling child protection matters. The issues raised relate to court proceedings. Further investigation into matters separable from the court proceedings is unlikely to achieve a different outcome.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains that the handling of her child’s protection case was improper, citing failures by social workers to follow the Public Law Outline (PLO) process. She says that the reports were flawed and biased, and that the case was escalated to court unnecessarily, without enough support for the family.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
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. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact 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 or continue an investigation if we decide there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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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 says that her child had multiple social workers. The Council acknowledges the emotional distress this caused and confirms that the child has had a consistent social worker since November 2024. I will not investigate this matter, as we are unlikely to achieve a worthwhile outcome through our investigation.
9. Miss X says that the Council made a safeguarding referral to the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) which she believes was misleading and underhand. However, the Council has a duty to refer in certain circumstances, and there is not enough evidence of fault in how it exercised that duty.
10. I cannot investigate other aspects of Miss X’s complaint concerning the Council’s decision to commence court proceedings and the contents of the Council’s reports. The matters she raises formed part of care proceedings, and therefore we do not have power to investigate this. The law prevents us from investigating the start of court action and anything that has formed part of court proceedings, including the preparation and contents of reports presented to the courts by the Council, and issues about social worker support which are also related to the court action.

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Final decision

11. We cannot investigate Miss X’s complaint because the issues raised relate to care proceedings which are outside the Ombudsman remit. Other issues involving multiple social workers have been dealt with appropriately by the Council, so further investigation is unlikely to achieve an outcome.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman