Summary: We cannot investigate Miss X’s complaint about the Council’s involvement in child protection processes. This is because the law prevents us from investigating matters which have been considered in court. And there is another body better placed to consider complaints about individual social workers.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains the Council mishandled child protection and court matters involving her children. She raises concerns about:

• social workers’ conduct;
• poor communication;
• lack of support;
• safeguarding risks; and,
• inaccurate reports provided to the court.

2. She alleges bias by the social worker and that their actions led to the loss of her children, causing significant emotional and psychological harm. She seeks safeguarding action, implementation of reasonable adjustments, a single point of contact, a full review and correction of records and an apology with service improvements.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
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 not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating and there is another body better placed to consider this complaint. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
7. When we find fault, we can recommend remedies for significant personal injustice, or to prevent future injustice, caused by that fault. We look at organisational fault, not individual professional competence. Decisions about individual’s fitness to practise or work are for the organisations concerned, and for professional regulators, not the Ombudsman. (Local Government Act 1974, s26(1) and s26A(1) as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

10. Miss X’s complaint centres on the Council’s involvement in child protection processes and the preparation of reports used in court proceedings about her children.
11. The family court decided the children’s living arrangements. The law prevents us from investigating what happened in court, including the evidence, reports, and decisions made as part of those proceedings. Miss X will need to return to court if she wishes to challenge the decision to place her children with their other parent. We have no powers to intervene or make decisions in place of the court.
12. Miss X also complained she asked the Council to make reasonable adjustments due to her disability. The Council’s records show that it has logged this request and notes that Miss X requires verbal communication before receiving written responses. The Council also appears to have met Miss X’s needs by speaking with her about her complaints before confirming its findings in writing.
13. Miss X also raised concerns that the social worker acted in a disrespectful and biased manner. However, the Council considered these allegations and found no evidence to support them. If Miss X has concerns about the professionalism or conduct of an individual social worker, she can report these to their professional body, Social Work England. Because we investigate the council actions as corporate bodies, we have no remit to consider the actions or conduct of individual council employees. Because of this we will not investigate Miss X’s concerns about the social worker.

Final decision

14. We cannot investigate Miss X’s complaint because it concerns matters which have been considered in court and there is another body better placed to consider complaints about the conduct of individual social workers.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman