Summary: We cannot investigate Miss X’s complaint about a report the Council had prepared about her child for court or its refusal to consider her complaint about this. The law prevents us from investigating anything that has been or is the subject of court proceedings. There is not enough evidence fault and we also cannot achieve the outcomes Miss X wants.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains a Council Social Worker is covering up serious abuse of her child and has allowed them to be placed with their other parent. Miss X also complains the Council’s Legal Adviser has failed to signpost her to the Council’s complaint procedure. Miss X wants the Social Worker and Legal Adviser removed from their roles for blocking her significant concerns about her child.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. 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)
4. 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), section 34(B))
5. When we find fault, we can recommend remedies for significant personal injustice, or to prevent future injustice, caused by that fault. We look at organisational fault, not individual professional competence. Decisions about individual’s fitness to practise or work are for the organisations concerned, and for professional regulators, not the Ombudsman. (Local Government Act 1974, s26(1) and s26A(1) as amended)
6. We will not usually investigate complaint handling if we are not investigating the rest of the complaint. This is because there is not usually enough injustice to justify us doing so. We collect information about particularly poor complaint handling practice and report this back to organisations. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), section 34B(8))

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

8. Miss X’s complaint to the Council relates to the content of a report it has prepared for the court. Reports prepared under section 37 of the Children Act 1989 are ordered by the court when there are concerns a child might be at risk of significant harm.
9. The Council has declined to investigate Miss X concerns about its section 37 report about her child under its complaint procedure because these issues should be raised directly with the court. We are unlikely to criticise or find fault with the Council for this decision.
10. Any arrangements about care and contact of children is a private matter between the people who have parental responsibility. Where those people cannot agree on those arrangements, only the court has the power to intervene and make decisions about what arrangements would be in the child’s best interests and on any matters of dispute. 
11. We will not investigate this complaint because neither we nor the Council can make decisions about which parent Miss X’s child should live with. Miss X would need to consider returning to court if she wishes to challenge the placement of her child with their other parent.
12. We also will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about the conduct of individual employees because disciplinary issues fall outside our role. If Miss X has concerns about the professionalism or conduct of an individual social worker or legal adviser, she may wish to report these to their professional regulator.

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Final decision

13. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because the law prevents us from investigating anything that has been or is the subject the court proceedings and there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council. We also will not investigate the conduct of individual employees and we cannot ask the Council to dismiss them.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman