Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint about the Council’s children’s services involvement with Ms X’s family. The law prevents us from investigating matters which have been subject to court proceedings and part of the complaint is late without good reasons for us to exercise discretion to consider it now.

The complaint

1. Ms X complained about the Council’s children’s services. Ms X said it failed to provide her with support, showed bias in court proceedings and failed to safeguard her children.
2. Ms X said the lack of support caused a negative impact to her mental health.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

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)
5. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

8. Ms X complained about the Council’s children’s services involvement with her family between 2010-2025.
9. As outlined in paragraph five, we cannot investigate late complaints without good reasons. I have considered whether we should exercise discretion to consider the late parts of Ms X’s complaints but have seen no good reasons to do so.
10. For the more recent parts of Ms X’s complaint, I consider the concerns could have been raised by Ms X or her legal representatives as part of closely related court proceedings.
11. As outlined in paragraph four, the law prevents us from investigating matters which have been subject to court proceedings and so we cannot investigate.

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Final decision

12. We cannot investigate Ms X’s complaint because part of it relates to court proceedings and the remainder of it is late.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman