City of Doncaster Council (23 006 695)
Category : Children's care services > Friends and family carers
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 01 Oct 2023
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the circumstances of the removal of the complainant’s daughter from her care. This is because there is no evidence of fault on the Council’s part.
The complaint
- The complainant, who I will refer to as Ms X, complains that the Council has removed her daughter from her care based on false information provided by the child’s father.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Ms X says the Council has removed her daughter from her care and has placed her with her father. She says it did so on the basis of false accusations made by the child’s father about her partner.
- In response to Ms X’s complaint, the Council has said it did not remove the child. Rather, the child’s father has exercised his parental rights, and the child’s care is a private law matter in which it has no role. It denies having carried out an assessment and points out that Mrs X’s children have not been open to the Council since 2021.
- The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint as there is no evidence of fault on the Council’s part. As the Council has explained, who has care of Ms X’s daughter is a private law matter in which the Council has no role. Ms X’s recourse is to pursue the matter in court.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because there is no evidence of fault on the Council’s part.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman