West Sussex County Council (21 014 906)

Category : Children's care services > Friends and family carers

Decision : Closed after initial enquiries

Decision date : 07 Feb 2022

The Ombudsman's final decision:

Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a report the Council’s children’s services produced for the courts. The law prevents us from considering complaints about matters that have been considered during court proceedings.

The complaint

  1. The complainant, who I will call Miss X, complains about how the Council’s children’s services compiled a report produced for the courts during proceedings to consider contact arrangements for her grandchild. She says the report was not accurate and has impacted the contact arrangements for her grandchild.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

  1. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
  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)

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How I considered this complaint

  1. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
  2. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

  1. We cannot investigate Miss X’s complaint about a court report because it lies outside of our jurisdiction. The law prevents us from investigating matters that have been considered in court, including reports that have been requested by the courts and considered during proceedings.

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Final decision

  1. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because we cannot investigate matters which have been subject to court proceedings.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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