Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council (26 013 499)
Category : Children's care services > Child protection
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 17 Aug 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the actions of the Council’s children’s services. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault in the Council’s decision not to investigate X’s complaint while court proceedings are ongoing.
The complaint
- X complains about the Council’s children’s services and its involvement with their family.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- The Council told X it would not consider their complaint via its complaints procedure at this time. This is because there are ongoing court proceedings linked to the issues raised in the complaint.
- We will not investigate X’s complaint. This is because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to consider the matter via its complaints procedure whilst there are ongoing court proceedings. As set out in the Council’s response, this is a decision the Council is entitled to make in line with Regulation 8 of the Children Act 1989 Representations Procedure (England). This is to prevent court proceedings from being put at risk of being prejudiced by a concurrent investigation. It will be open to X to ask the Council to consider any residual matters via the complaints procedure once legal proceedings have concluded.
Final decision
- We will not investigate X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman