Summary: We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint about the actions of children’s services. The law prevents us from investigating complaints about the start of court action and what happened in court. Additionally, some of Mr X’s complaint is late. For the remainder, it is reasonable for Mr X to ask the Council for a review.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained the Council was biased against him, did not properly consider his safeguarding concerns about his children, holds inaccurate information, communicated poorly with him and did not properly handle his complaint. Mr X’s complaint spans several years.
2. Mr X said this caused him distress, impacted on the children’s progress and caused him to incur legal costs.
3. Mr X wants the Council to consider his complaint properly, review its processes, apologise and allocate a named social worker for him to communicate with.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

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)
6. 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))
7. 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)
8. 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 it would be reasonable for the person to ask for a council review or appeal. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

9. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
10. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

11. We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint. Some of the matters Mr X complains about are inseparable from matters that formed part of the conduct of court proceedings. The law prevents us from investigating complaints about the start of court proceedings or what happened in court.
12. Additionally, some of Mr X’s complaint is late. I have seen no good reason to exercise discretion to consider these parts of Mr X’s complaint now.
13. Most councils have a two or three stage complaints procedure. These are designed to put things right for people quickly and efficiently when things go wrong. We would normally expect someone to be able to show they had exhausted such procedures before approaching the Ombudsman. 
14. The Council has told Mr X it is willing to consider the part of his complaint about matters from July 2025 and asked for more information from him to progress the complaint. This avenue remains available to Mr X.
15. We will not investigate this part of Mr X’s complaint. It is reasonable for Mr X to complete the Council’s complaints procedure before complaining to us.
16. 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.

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Final decision

17. We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint because the law prevents us from investigating complaints about the start of court action or what happened in court, and some of the complaint is late. For the remainder, it is reasonable for Mr X to ask the Council for a review.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman