Summary: The Ombudsman cannot investigate Ms J’s complaint about the Council’s decision to place her daughter with foster carers. This is because the law does not let us investigate what happened in court.

The complaint

1. Ms J complains that the Council removed her grand-daughter, G, from her care, and placed her with foster carers. So G is now living with people who cannot care for her as well as Ms J could. Ms J would like G returned to her care.

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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)

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 we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I have considered the information Ms J provided with her complaint, and information provided by the Council when we asked about its consideration of the complaint. I have discussed Ms J’s complaint with her and given her the opportunity to comment on my draft decision.

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What I found

4. The Council approved Ms J as the carer for her young relative, N, several years ago. Last year, the Council asked Ms J to look after her granddaughter, G, while G and her mother lived with Ms J.
5. After a few weeks the Council organised a child protection conference. The conference decided G should move to foster carers. The Council took the matter to court and the court decided where G should live.
6. Ms J was not party to court proceedings. But the decision to place G with foster carers was reviewed in court. This means Ms J’s complaint is about what happened in court, so we cannot investigate it.
7. We could look at a complaint about lack of support from the Council while G was in Ms J’s care, and the way in which the Council removed G from her care. But this is not the complaint Ms J has made to us, and we could not achieve what Ms J wants, which is the return of G to her care. So we should not investigate these issues.

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Final decision

8. The Ombudsman cannot investigate this complaint because the law does not let us investigate what happened in court.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman