Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the social worker allocated to her grandchildren’s case which is subject to ongoing care proceedings. This is because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to consider the complaint whilst there are ongoing court proceedings.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains about the social worker allocated to her grandchildren’s case. Mrs X says the social worker is rogue, has lied and is misusing her power against her daughter in the ongoing care proceedings. She says the Council has not provided a satisfactory resolution to her concerns. It said her concerns would need to be presented to the court but she was later told the judge would not consider her complaints.

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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 effect 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 an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
3. 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. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
4. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
5. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

8. Mrs X complained to the Council about the actions of the social worker allocated to her grandchildren’s case.
9. The Council told Mrs X it would not consider her complaint because the case is subject to ongoing care proceedings and the issues raised will be considered in court. It said that Mrs X’s views were being heard and where appropriate they would be taken into account.
10. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint. This is because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to consider her complaint via its complaints procedure whilst the matter is subject to ongoing care proceedings in court. This is a decision the Council has discretion to make, in order to prevent the care proceedings, which take precedence over a complaint investigation, from being put at risk of being prejudiced by a concurrent investigation.
11. It will be open to Mrs X to resubmit her complaint to the Council once the court proceedings have concluded so that it can decide whether there are any residual matters which were not, and could not have been, raised and considered during the proceedings that it can consider via its complaints procedure.
12. We cannot investigate complaints about matters that have been subject to court proceedings because it lies outside our jurisdiction. The law prevents us from investigating complaints about such matters.
13. We cannot investigate complaints about whether social workers are meeting their professional standards of conduct. Complaints of this nature should be referred to the social workers’ professional body, Social Work England.

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Final decision

14. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to investigate her complaint whilst the case is subject to ongoing court proceedings.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman