Peterborough City Council (23 009 062)
Category : Children's care services > Friends and family carers
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 18 Oct 2023
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint about the actions of the Council’s children’s services prior to the complainant being awarded a Special Guardianship Order. This is because the issues raised have been subject to court proceedings.
The complaint
- The complainant, who I will call Mrs X, was awarded a Special Guardianship Order to care for her grandchildren. She says that prior to this the Council should have sought a care order, and it’s failure to do so has impacted the financial support the children now receive.
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 considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- In 2021, the Council commenced court proceedings to determine the care arrangements of Mrs X’s grandchildren. The courts subsequently made a Child Arrangement Order (CAO) for the children. Mrs X feels that a Care Order should have instead been sought.
- I cannot investigate Mrs X’s complaint. The law does not allow us to investigate any matter that has been subject to court proceedings. The decision to make a CAO was made by the Court and not the Council. Any decision by the Council about what order to seek during proceedings is not separable from the proceedings themselves.
- Even if we could separate out any of the Council’s actions prior to Mrs X being awarded an SGO we would not investigate the complaint. This is because these events occurred in 2021 and are therefore late. I see no good reason why they could not have been raised sooner.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because the matter has been subject to court proceedings.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman