Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the qualifications of a worker the Council appointed to complete a report for court proceedings. The law prevents us from investigating what happened in court.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained the Council allowed an unqualified person to submit a report as part of court proceedings. He said the Council also failed to investigate his legitimate complaint due to the passage of time.
2. Mr X said this led to him losing contact with his children as the report directly influenced the court’s decision to remove his children from his full-time care. He wanted the Council to acknowledge fault, apologise and correct records to make clear the report was not lawful. He also wants the Council to make service improvements.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

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)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

Back to top

My assessment

6. We issued a decision in May 2023 not to investigate Mr X’s previous complaint about the content of the Council’s report submitted to court.
7. Mr X says he complained to the Council again after the proceedings had come to an end, but the Council declined to investigate the complaint due to the passage of time. The Council said in this response that it no longer employed the worker Mr X had named, and they had not been a qualified social worker but an early help worker. It explained early help workers would not normally complete reports for court. Mr X brought his complaint back to us given this new information.
8. The law prevents us from investigating what happened in court. This includes the content of court reports, an explained in our previous decision, as well as the Council’s decision about which worker should complete the report. Mr X had the opportunity during the proceedings to raise any issues he took with the content of the report. We have no power to investigate this complaint now.
9. The courts have said we can decide not to investigate a complaint about any action by an organisation concerning a matter which the law says we cannot investigate. (R (on the application of M) v Commissioner for Local Administration [2006] EHWCC 2847 (Admin)). We will not investigate the Council’s complaint-handling in isolation.
10. We have no power to return Mr X’s children to his care. It is open to Mr X to issue fresh proceedings if he believes the new information casts doubt on the findings within the previous report, such that the decision should be revisited.

Back to top

Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the law prevents us from investigating what happens in court.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman