Summary: We will not investigate this complaint that the Council’s actions have alienated the complainant’s children from him. This is because our intervention would not achieve what he is seeking or lead to a different outcome.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X, complains that the Council’s actions have alienated his children from him, causing the children emotional harm.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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:

• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. Mr X’s children are the subject of a full care order. He says he has no contact with them, which he attributes to parental alienation as a result of the Council’s actions.
6. Mr X complains that the Council has failed to promote contact between him and the children, failed to pass on gifts from him and has failed to keep him properly informed about the children’s lives. He says the outcome he is seeking is that he reestablishes contact with his children.
7. The evidence shows that Mr X made a complaint to the Council which has completed the three stages of the statutory procedure for children’s services. It was not substantially upheld, though the Council has agreed to make some changes in the way it communicates with Mr X.
8. The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. Matters before 2023, including the delay in forwarding presents, were the subject of Mr X’s previous complaint to the Ombudsman and will not be revisited. More recent matters have been considered under the appropriate complaints procedure and the findings are defensible and proportionate. It is not for the Ombudsman to intervene to substitute and alternative view.
9. It is also the case that our intervention cannot achieve what Mr X wants. If Mr X is unhappy with the current contact arrangements, his recourse is to take the matter back to court to ask for them to be varied. There is no role for the Ombudsman.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because our intervention would not achieve what he is seeking or lead to a different outcome.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman