Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the actions of the Council’s children’s services. This is because it concerns matters that have been considered in court and because it is made late. There is insufficient evidence of fault with the Council’s decision not to investigate the matters for the same reasons.

The complaint

1. X complains that the Council provided inaccurate information during care proceedings for their child and about the conduct of a social worker. X says that, because of the Council’s actions, their child has been taken into care.

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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 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))
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 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

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

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My assessment

7. The children’s statutory complaints procedure allows the Council to decline to take a complaint about matters which have occurred more than 12 months before the complaint was raised. It can do so, provided it explains why it has decided this, and does so on a case-by-case basis. In this case, the Council wrote to X and explained its reasons for refusing to consider the complaint. Therefore, it is unlikely we would find fault if we were to investigate its decision.
8. I have considered whether there are good reasons for us to exercise discretion to consider X's complaint. The law, explained in paragraph four, says we should not investigate late complaints, and I have not seen any evidence of good reasons why a complaint about these matters could not have been made to us sooner. 
9. Furthermore, the law prevents us from investigating what happened in court. Therefore, we cannot investigate X’s complaint about information that the Council provided to the courts during care proceedings.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate X’s complaint because it concerns matters that have been considered in court and because it is made late. There is insufficient evidence of fault with the Council’s decision not to investigate the matters for the same reasons.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman