Summary: We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint about how the Council completed a viability assessment. Mr X started court action about the matter and so the law says we cannot investigate. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaints about delays in the Council completing a later viability assessment, or delays in it making contact arrangements because there is no evidence of a significant injustice and there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by an investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained about the Council’s children’s services involvement with his family, specifically relating to a child family member, Y, who became a Looked After Child in 2025.
2. Mr X complained about how the Council completed a viability assessment, a delay in it completing the assessment and in it arranging contact for him with Y.
3. Mr X said the matters caused distress and uncertainty.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
5. We cannot investigate a complaint if someone has started court action about the matter. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
6. The courts have said that where someone has sought a remedy by way of proceedings in any court of law, we cannot investigate. This is the case even if the appeal did not or could not provide a complete remedy for all the injustice claimed. (R v The Commissioner for Local Administration ex parte PH (1999) EHCA Civ 916)
7. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact 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 or continue an investigation if we decide:

• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

8. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
9. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

10. Y is a Looked After Child. Mr X complained about how the Council completed a viability assessment of him when considering foster placement options for Y. Mr X said the Council did not consider key information, did not take a proportionate approach and did not communicate with him effectively.
11. Mr X began court action about this matter. As outlined in paragraph five, we cannot investigate a complaint where someone has started court action about the matter. Therefore, we cannot investigate this complaint.
12. I considered the delay in the Council completing the assessment, as this could be separable from the court action.
13. The assessment took three months and did not result in Y being placed with Mr X. While we might find fault in how long it took the Council to assess Mr X, I do not consider this caused Mr X a significant enough injustice to warrant an investigation.
14. This is because the outcome would likely have been the same. Therefore, we will not investigate this part of the complaint.
15. Mr X also complained about a delay in the Council arranging contact for him with Y.
16. The available information suggests contact arrangements were considered by the courts, and any future arrangements will be decided by the courts. The courts are best placed to make decisions relating to Y’s contact with Mr X. The Council explained Mr X had some contact with Y and it tried to arrange a further contact several months later but was unable to do so at the time he proposed.
17. Although Mr X is frustrated with the level of contact, because of the courts active involvement relating to Y and because the Council attempted to arrange some contact an investigation by the Ombudsman is unlikely to achieve any worthwhile outcome, and so we will not investigate.

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Final decision

18. We cannot investigate part of Mr X’s complaint because he started court action. We will not investigate the rest of Mr X’s complaint because there is no evidence of a significant injustice and there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our involvement.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman