Summary: The Ombudsman cannot investigate Miss X’s complaint about a children services report on her ability to care for her grandchild. The report forms part of legal proceedings and the law prevents us from investigating legal proceedings.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Miss X, says the Council has not properly considered her as a carer for her grandchild, D, and has not looked into her complaint properly.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
3. We normally expect someone to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner if they have a complaint about data protection. However, we may decide to investigate if we think there are good reasons. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
4. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word 'fault' to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe there is another body better placed to consider this complaint. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
5. The Courts have said that we cannot investigate a complaint about any action by a council, concerning a matter which is itself out of our jurisdiction. (R (on the application of M) v Commissioner for Local Administration [2006] EHWCC 2847 (Admin))

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered the information Miss X provided with her complaint and the Council’s replies to her which it provided. Miss X had an opportunity to comment on a draft version of this decision.

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What I found

7. Miss X is D’s grandmother. The Council asked the Courts to decide D’s care arrangements and whether D should live in foster care or with extended family. Miss X wanted to be considered as a possible carer. The Court ordered an assessment of her ability to care for D. This is a viability assessment.
8. Miss X says the Council should have started the assessment in November. It did not. It says because of staff shortages it instead assessed Miss X in January 2019 over a two week period. Miss X believes the Council rushed the assessment. She says it is inaccurate and unfair.
9. The Council say it is satisfied its assessment is robust.
10. The Court decided D should live with another grandparent and granted a Special Guardianship Order.
11. Miss X complained to the Council. She believes the viability assessment is wrong and inaccurate and the Council should have proposed and dealt with D’s care differently

Analysis

12. We cannot investigate the viability assessment’s accuracy or preparation, as the Court ordered it and it was an integral part of the Court Proceedings.
13. Parliament set up the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to consider allegations of Data Protection Act (DPA) breaches. Holding inaccurate information can be a DPA breach. It is reasonable to expect Miss X to use the ICO.
14. We cannot consider D’s care arrangements as the Court decided this.
15. We cannot investigate how a Council replied to a complaint about issues which we have no power to investigate.

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Final decision

16. The Ombudsman cannot investigate this complaint. This is because her complaint is essentially about legal proceedings.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman