Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s actions relating to a child. We cannot consider decisions made in court because the law does not allow it. We will not investigate a complaint about the Council’s actions after that point because the complaint is late and there are no good reasons to investigate now.

The complaint

1. Miss X says the Council acted unfairly when it accused her of causing emotional harm to her son. She says this was unjustified and it was wrong for the Council to have removed her son because of that allegation.
2. Miss X also says the Council has treated her badly in the way it organised contact with her son after this. Miss X says the Council’s actions have caused her anxiety and depression.

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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 and I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. Miss X said the Council falsely accused her of causing her son emotional harm and was wrong to have used this allegation to remove him from her care. We cannot investigate a complaint about a matter which has been considered in court because of the law I have mentioned at paragraph three. This includes information the Council submitted to the court as evidence because the court could challenge that evidence if it was disputed or wrong.
8. Miss X also said the Council acted unfairly because it did not always include her in planning meetings about her son and restricted her contact with her son and his foster carers. Miss X did not complain to us about this until August 2026 and the evidence suggests these matters all occurred several years ago.
9. The expectation in law is that we only investigate complaints about decisions and other matters that happened within 12 months of when a person complained to us. The only exception to this is where we see good reasons why a complaint could not have been made to us sooner. I have not seen any evidence of good reasons why this complaint could not have been raised sooner. Therefore, I will not investigate this complaint.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because part of it the law does not allow us to and the other part is late.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman