Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of her children’s case. This is because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to consider her complaint until the ongoing court proceedings have concluded.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains about the allocated social worker’s handling of her children’s case. She raised numerous concerns about the officer’s practice; assessment; trauma-informed working and the application of statutory duties and safeguarding frameworks. Miss X says the social worker did not accurately identify or prioritise the source of risk to her children and did not apply domestic abuse statutory guidance.

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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 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. Miss X complained to the Council about the allocated social worker’s actions in the handling of her children’s case.
8. The Council told Miss X it would not currently consider her complaint. This is because it decided it could be prejudicial to the ongoing court proceedings for it to do so. It told Miss X she could resubmit her complaint once the proceedings have concluded. It signposted Miss X to this office if she was dissatisfied with its decision.
9. We will not investigate Miss 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. It is a decision the Council has discretion to make where there are concurrent proceedings, including court proceedings, as set out in the relevant guidance which the Council referred to in its response.
10. Once the proceedings have concluded it will be open to Miss X to resubmit her complaint to the Council to see whether there are any residual matters it will consider via its complaints procedure.
11. The law prevents us from investigating complaints about matters that are being, or have been, considered in court proceedings or which could have been raised and considered in the proceedings. We have no discretion to consider such matters.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to investigate her complaint until the ongoing proceedings have concluded.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman