Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s children’s services involvement with the complainants family. This is because we cannot add to the investigation already carried out by the Council and we cannot achieve the outcome the complainant seeks.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will call Mr X, complains that the Council’s children’s services have failed to facilitate contact between he and his son, who is a looked after child. Mr X says the Council has also failed to properly communicate with him. Mr X wants the care order to be discharged and contact with his child to be reinstated.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Ombudsman investigates 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 may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Mr X’s son is a looked after child and his is therefore subject to a care order. Mr X complained to the Council that it had failed to facilitate contact between he and his son and had failed to properly communicate with him. Mr X said he wanted the care order to be discharged and contact with his son reinstated.
6. The Council considered Mr X’s complaint under the statutory procedure for children’s complaints. It completed all three stages of the procedure but neither element of his complaint was upheld.
7. I will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is no prospect that further investigation could add to the Council’s investigation under the statutory complaints procedure.
8. At Stage two if the Council’s investigation, Mr X was able to give his view of the Council’s actions, and relevant Council staff were interviewed, and relevant documents reviewed. At Stage 2 and Stage 3 the independent Investigating Officer and the members of the Review Panel considered the evidence before them and there is nothing to indicate fault in the way they did so.
9. Mr X says he was not given the opportunity to speak during the Stage 3 panel hearing. However, records show that Mr X did speak about both elements of his complaint, and that the panel had the opportunity to question him. The chair of the panel did place Mr X’s microphone on mute near the end of the hearing, due to interruptions. However, records show that by this point the panel were satisfied that they had reached clarification over Mr X’s complaint. I therefore see no fault in how communications during the hearing were managed.
10. Mr X disagrees with the outcome of the complaint procedure. But that does not mean the outcome was unreasonable in the circumstances of the case. Without evidence of fault in the way the Investigating Officer and Review Panel reached their conclusions, the Ombudsman cannot criticise the outcome or intervene to substitute an alternative view. Any investigation by the Ombudsman would therefore be unlikely to add to the investigation already carried out.
11. Even if I had found evidence of fault with how the Council considered Mr X’s complaint, I still would not investigate it. In his correspondence with the Council and the Ombudsman, Mr X has said that he wants the care order discharged and for contact to be reinstated with his son. This is not an outcome we can achieve because we are unable to interfere in the discharge of a care order, because this is a matter for the courts.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we cannot add to the Council’s previous investigation or achieve the outcome he seeks.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman