Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about the Council’s consideration of her safeguarding report. Those concerns were considered within Court proceedings and we cannot investigate issues which form part of Court proceedings.

The complaint

1. Miss X says the Council’s children services team failed to properly investigate a safeguarding referral she made in January 2025. She says the Council’s complaint replies contained mistakes and inaccuracies.

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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))
4. The courts have said we can decide not to investigate a complaint about any action by an organisation concerning a matter which the law says we cannot investigate. (R (on the application of M) v Commissioner for Local Administration [2006] EHWCC 2847 (Admin))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

7. Miss X says she reported concerns about an adult’s risk with her child Y in January 2025. She says the Council did not properly consider or act on her report.
8. The Council says it held an Initial Child Protection Conference (ICPC) in January 2025 at which it says her concerns were discussed. It says Court proceedings followed which ended in October 2025 with a Child Arrangement Order made setting out Y’s care. It says it provided a section seven report to the Court. It says Miss X’s concerns were discussed in those Court proceedings.
9. We cannot investigate issues which have been part of Court proceedings, even if those proceedings are after the referral. The Court had wide powers to order the Council to investigate any concerns and reports.
10. We cannot and will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about how the Council handled her complaint. It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue. And we cannot when we cannot investigate that substantive issue.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because we cannot consider issues which have been part of Court proceedings.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman