Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s failure to safeguard Mrs X and her family. This is because it is late and concerns matters relating to Court proceedings which we cannot consider.

The complaint

1. Mrs X says that between 2016 and 2018, the Council failed to properly safeguard her family, mishandled information, and dealt poorly with her complaints. She believes the Council discouraged raising concerns, which left her family exposed to harm and resulted in long‑term emotional and financial impact. She wants the Council to acknowledge these failures, issue an apology, and improve its safeguarding, transparency, and complaint‑handling processes.

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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 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)
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 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 another body better placed to consider this complaint. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

9. Mrs X says that between 2016 and 2018, the Council failed to safeguard her and her children after she left an abusive marriage. She says the Council created inaccurate records, refused to correct them despite repeated requests, and later submitted these inaccuracies to court delaying legal proceedings. She also reports a data breach, poor multi‑agency working, and a culture that discouraged complaints.
10. She asks for a senior review, acknowledgement of errors, and assurance the Council will prevent similar failures in future.
11. Mrs X complained to the Council in 2025 more than 7 years after the events. For this reason, the Council declined to investigate her complaint as the issues raised fell outside the usual 12‑month time limit for making a complaint.
12. The Council also said many of the matters raised related to court proceedings and therefore had to be dealt with through correct legal channels and could not be considered via the Children’s Statutory Complaints process.
13. We will not investigate this complaint because it is late and even if we exercised discretion to investigate as the issues raised relate largely to court proceedings they fall outside of our remit. We would not generally investigate matters that we decide should have been raised as part of related proceedings and it would have been reasonable for Mrs X to raise any concerns about these matters with the Court at the time.
14. Mrs X could have contacted us at the time of events, and we could have decided whether to investigate, taking into account any proceedings and whether they were separable to the issues she complained about. We cannot do that now.
15. Additionally, any matters about police conduct or alleged data protection breaches should be considered by the relevant police oversight bodies and the Information Commissioner’s Office.

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Final decision

16. We will not investigate Mrs’s X’s complaint because it is late and concerns matters relating to Court proceedings which we cannot consider.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman