Summary: The Ombudsman cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint about who should care for his child. The Court decided this. We should not investigate the Council’s response to an injury to the child. It is reasonable to expect Mr X to complain to the Council once a Police investigation is completed.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Mr X, says the Council failed to protect their child while in the Council’s care and failed to reply to his complaint about this.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

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)
3. We have the power to start or discontinue an investigation into a complaint within our jurisdiction. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we think the issues could reasonably be, or have been, raised within a court of law. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8), as amended)
4. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word 'fault' to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe it would be reasonable for the person to ask for a council review or appeal. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered the information Mr X provided with his complaint and the Council’s replies to his complaint which it provided us with. Mr X had an opportunity to comment on a draft version of this decision.

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What I found

Background

6. Mr X says in June 2018, at four days old, the Council began caring for his child. He says the child suffered an injury while in their foster carer’s care in September 2018. He says he asked the Council for information about this. He says he has not had enough information. He says the Council has failed to take action to prevent his child being injured and has failed to reply properly to his complaint.
7. The Council says:
1. The Police investigation into the injury is continuing and it will not reply to Mr X’s complaint in full about the injury until that is completed.
2. There were Court proceedings in 2019 to decide whether the child should live with their family or in care or an adoption be arranged. The Council says the Court decided the child’s care arrangements and its complaint procedure would not look at the same issues.

Analysis

8. We cannot investigate whether a crime has been committed. The Police are doing this. It is reasonable for the Council to wait for the Police investigation to finish. It is also reasonable to expect Mr X to complain to the Council once that investigation is concluded.
9. We cannot investigate the decision about who should care for the child. The Court decided this. It could have made interim decisions during the proceedings. It is reasonable to expect Mr X to have told the Court of his concerns about the child’s care.

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Final decision

10. The Ombudsman will not and cannot investigate this complaint. This is because we cannot investigate the Court’s decisions and it is reasonable to expect Mr X to complain to the Council when the Police investigation is finished.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman