Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint about the services provided to a young person looked after by the Council. This is because the complainant has started court action.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will refer to as Mr B, complains that the Council has failed to give him an appropriate level of service while he has been in its care.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. We cannot investigate a complaint if someone has started court action about the matter. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
4. The courts have said that where someone has used their right of appeal, reference or review or remedy by way of proceedings in any court of law, the Ombudsman has no jurisdiction to 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)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. Mr B has been in the Council’s care since 2017. He is due to leave care in 2022. He complains that the Council is at fault in failing to make reasonable arrangements for when he leaves care. Specifically, he complains that the Council has not produced an appropriate Pathway Plan.
8. Mr B further complains that the Council failed to make appropriate educational provision for him during his time in its care, and that this has negatively affected his educational achievement.
9. The evidence Mr B’s mother has provided on his behalf shows that both areas of complaint have been the subject of applications to the Court. Mr B and has mother applied for a Judicial Review of the Council’s alleged failure to plan for when he leaves care. The Judge refused the application. The evidence also shows that the issues around Mr B’s education are the subject of an earlier application to Court.
10. The fact that both areas of complaint have been the subject of court applications places them outside the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction, and we cannot investigate them. This is the case even though the Judge refused the Judicial Review application. By law, we cannot investigate where legal action has been initiated, whether or not the matter proceeded past the application stage and was ultimately aired in Court. There is no discretion available to us on this point. We cannot intervene.

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Final decision

11. We cannot investigate Mr B’s complain because he has started court action on the matters about which he complains.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman