Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council (25 026 554)
Category : Children's care services > Child protection
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 24 Jun 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s child protection actions in 2018. The complaint is very late and there are no good reasons to exercise discretion to consider it now. Also, the law prevents us from investigating any matters that have been considered in court.
The complaint
- Mr X complains about the Council’s actions in 2018 in its child protection involvement with his child.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- 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)
- 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)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr X complained to the Council about its actions in its child protection involvement with his child in 2018.
- The Council told Mr X it would not consider these matters via its complaints procedure because it was about events that are more than 12 months old.
- We will not investigate this complaint. It lies outside our jurisdiction because it is late. The law says a complaint should be made to us within 12 months of the person first becoming aware of the matter. Mr X was clearly aware of these events at the time and I see no good grounds to exercise discretion to consider it now.
- Mr X also refers to some matters being considered in court. The law prevents us from investigating complaints about matters that have been subject to court proceedings. We have no discretion to do so. This means we could not consider any matters that have been subject to court proceedings even if the complaint had been made to us within 12 months.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. It lies outside our jurisdiction because it is late and there are no good grounds to exercise discretion to consider it now. Also, the law prevents us from considering any matters that have been considered in court proceedings.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman