Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council’s actions and decisions in its child protection involvement with her family which is subject to ongoing care proceedings. This is because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to consider her complaint whilst the proceedings are ongoing.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains about the Council’s actions, decisions and treatment of her and her children in their case which is subject to ongoing care proceedings and which has led to her child being placed in foster care.

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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 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. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
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)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

7. The Council told Ms X it would not consider her complaint because the case is subject to ongoing care proceedings. It explained it could be prejudicial to the proceedings for it to consider her concerns via its complaints procedure at the same time. It advised Ms X to raise her concerns to her legal representative so that they can be raised and considered during the proceedings.
8. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint. This is because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to consider her complaint whilst there are ongoing court proceedings. This is a decision the Council has discretion to make, in line with the relevant statutory guidance where a complaint is made and there are ongoing proceedings. This is to ensure the proceedings are not put at any risk of being prejudiced by a concurrent complaint investigation.
9. It will be open to Ms X to resubmit her complaint to the Council once the proceedings have concluded. The Council can then decide whether there are any residual matters it can consider via its complaints procedure.
10. The law prevents us from investigating complaints about matters that are being, or have been, considered in court or which could have been raised and considered by the court during the proceedings. Such matters lie outside our jurisdiction and we have no discretion to consider them.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to consider her complaint whilst there are ongoing court proceedings.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman