Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s involvement with his child. The complaint is late and the law prevents us from investigating anything that is or has been the subject of court proceedings.

The complaint

1. Mr X says that, during its involvement with his child, the Council acted with bias and unfairly favoured his child’s mother. He says this resulted in him losing contact with his child. He says this caused him significant emotional distress, damaged his relationship with his child, and affected his business and wellbeing. Mr X also says the Council ignored his earlier complaint and refused to consider this complaint under the statutory children’s complaints process. He wants the Council to investigate his concerns.

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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 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)
4. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

7. The Council has declined to investigate Mr X’s complaint about the content of a report it produced for the court in 2021 under section 7 of the Children Act 1989. It has explained to Mr X that his complaint falls outside the remit of the statutory procedure for complaints about children social care (Getting the Best from Complaints) because it relates to matters the courts have considered.
8. Any arrangements about care and contact of children is a private matter between the people who have parental responsibility. Where those people cannot agree on those arrangements, only the court has the power to intervene and make decisions about what arrangements would be in the child’s best interests and on any matters of dispute.
9. As part of private law proceedings involving children, the court may ask the Council to produce a section 7 or 37 report. The court will then consider the report as part of its decision making. Because section 7 and 37 reports form part of court proceedings, we have no jurisdiction to investigate their preparation or content.
10. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the law prevents us from investigating anything that is or has been the subject of Court proceedings. Mr X’s complaint is also late because it relates to events that occurred in 2021.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s late complaint because the law prevents us from investigating anything that is or has been the subject of Court proceedings.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman