Summary: We cannot investigate the Council’s preparation and content of a Court ordered children services’ report. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about safeguarding matters as it is reasonable to expect Mr X to have told the Court.

The complaint

1. Mr X says the Council’s children services team has been biased against him.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
3. 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))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Ms X and the Council’s replies to him.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. The Council’s reply to Mr X’s complaint sets out the Court ordered the Council to produce a Children Act 1989 section seven report about a child’s welfare and circumstances to aid its decision making in a child arrangement order application. Mr X believes the officer who produced this report was biased against him. He also has concerns the Council failed to properly consider safeguarding referrals he made about the child’s other parent’s care of the child concerned.
7. We cannot investigate complaints about the content or preparation of section seven reports. These form part of court proceedings. We are barred from investigating what happens in court as set out in paragraph two above.
8. It is reasonable to expect Mr X to have told the Court of any safeguarding issues. The Court has wide powers to order the Council take action or assess the case.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we cannot investigate the preparation or content of a Court ordered report. And it is reasonable to expect Mr X to have told the Court about his concerns.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman