Devon County Council (20 004 152)
Category : Children's care services > Friends and family carers
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 02 Nov 2020
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mrs X complaint about the Council’s actions concerning the residence of her great-grandchildren. Some of these matters are not separable from the those decided by a court, which means we cannot investigate them. The remaining matters are historic and there is no good reason to consider them.
The complaint
- Mrs X complains of the conduct of social workers when they removed her great-grandchildren from her care. She also complains about information sharing.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- 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 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)
How I considered this complaint
- I read Mrs X’s complaint. I considered Mrs X’s comments on a draft decision.
What I found
- Mrs X complains social workers acted with fault in 2018 and 2019 when they removed her great-grandchildren from her care. However, a court decided issues of contact and residence. Some secondary matters are separable from those considered by the court. However, they date from 2018. Even allowing for the Covid-19 lockdown period, these matters are late. Although Mrs X says she was unaware of the Ombudsman, that is not a sufficient reason to exercise discretion to consider these late matters.
Final decision
- The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because the principal matters are ones the Ombudsman cannot investigate, and there is no good reason to exercise discretion to investigate the remaining late matters.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman