Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about Miss X’s contact with her child. What the contact arrangements should be is a matter decided by a court that only a court can vary, and we cannot investigate that. Investigating the remaining matter, a missed contact session, would not lead to a worthwhile outcome.

The complaint

1. Miss X said the Council cancelled a contact session with her child without telling her. She said the contact she has with her child needs to be more frequent.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We cannot investigate a complaint if someone has started court action about the matter. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
3. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
4. 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:

• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

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

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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. The complaint correspondence shows the Council failed to tell Miss X it had cancelled a contact session with her child in October 2021. She only discovered this when she arrived at the venue. The Council apologised for this and stated it had organised another session to make up for the one missed. We would not recommend more than this.
8. Miss X’s main objective is to have more regular contact with her child. Given there has been court action, the arrangements are likely to have been set by the court or left by the court to the Council’s discretion. Only a court could specify different contact arrangements.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because:

• investigating the failed contact session would not lead to a different outcome;
• we cannot investigate the contact arrangements set by a court; and
• Miss X has a right to return to court it would be reasonable to use to seek new contact arrangements.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman