Newcastle upon Tyne City Council (25 005 384)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Child protection 02-Dec-2025

Summary: We will not investigate this complaint the Council included inaccurate information in a Child and Family assessment. Further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council (25 010 971)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Child protection 02-Dec-2025

Summary: We cannot investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council using fabricated reports and lying to the court in proceedings for her son because it lies outside our jurisdiction. The law prevents us from investigating complaints about matters which are being, or have been, considered in court proceedings. We have no discretion to do so.

Kent County Council (25 011 535)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Child protection 02-Dec-2025

Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about a report the Council has provided to the court in ongoing family court proceedings. This is because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to consider his complaint until the ongoing proceedings have concluded.

London Borough of Islington (25 007 335)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Child protection 01-Dec-2025

Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s children services’ complaint because there are no sufficient reasons to justify our reinvestigating a matter which has had a full Children Act statutory complaints’ procedure investigation. We are unlikely to achieve a significantly improved remedy for complaint delays.

Sheffield City Council (24 017 244)

Statement Upheld Child protection 30-Nov-2025

Summary: Ms X complains about the way the Council dealt with the care of her children. The Council was at fault for the Investigating Officer failing to consider information when they said they would, failing to clarify at stage three of the complaint procedure its view on whether it could investigate human rights matters, delaying in completing the complaint procedure and delaying in completing some of the agreed remedies. This caused Ms X and her children distress, frustration and uncertainty. The Council has agreed to apologise, make a payment to Ms X and the children, and send us an action plan on how it will improve complaint handling times.

Hertfordshire County Council (24 021 641)

Statement Upheld Child protection 28-Nov-2025

Summary: Miss X complained about the standard of the Council’s safeguarding investigation under the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) process following a safeguarding allegation made against her. There was no fault in how the Council investigated and substantiated the allegations. However, there was unnecessary delays during the investigation. Further, the LADO process did not apply policy or set clear timescales for actions to be completed after the investigation concluded. The Council agreed to apologise to Miss X for the frustration and uncertainty caused to her and review its policy.

Kingston Upon Hull City Council (25 008 647)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Child protection 28-Nov-2025

Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about children services’ action. There are no reasons to justify investigating events known to Ms X since 2021. We cannot investigate the Police’s actions. And the Information Commissioner’s Office is better placed to consider a data sharing complaint.

Leicester City Council (25 008 559)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Child protection 27-Nov-2025

Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint the Council has ignored his safeguarding concerns about his child. There is not enough evidence of fault to justify our involvement. It would be reasonable for Mr X to take any concerns he has about care and contact arrangements for his child to court.

Sheffield City Council (25 005 807)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Child protection 26-Nov-2025

Summary: We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint about information the Council shared with the Court. That is because the law says we cannot investigate matters that have formed court proceedings. We will also not investigate his complaint about a social worker. Further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

London Borough of Islington (25 008 591)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Child protection 26-Nov-2025

Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the investigation of a social services referral. There is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.