Summary: We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint that he has not been allowed contact with his two children since 2014, because it lies outside our jurisdiction. This is because these decisions were made by the courts. We have no discretion to consider it. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s decision not to consider his complaint. This is because it is unlikely we would find fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Mr X, complains the Council has not allowed him to have contact with his two children since 2014. He also complains about the Council’s decision not to consider his complaint under the children’s statutory complaints procedure.

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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 about the start of court action or what happened in court. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5A, paragraph 1/3, as amended)
4. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
5. We do not start an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

8. Mr X’s two children are in long term foster care. The courts granted care orders for them in 2014. No contact orders were later put in place by the courts.
9. Mr X complained to the Council that it had not allowed him to have contact with his children since 2014.
10. The Council told Mr X it could not consider his complaint because it was about matters that have been considered in court proceedings and because the complaints process cannot challenge or overturn the court’s decisions. It signposted Mr X to this office.
11. We cannot consider Mr X’s complaint about not being allowed contact with his children. The decisions to grant the care orders and no contact orders were made by the courts. We cannot consider complaints about matters that have been considered and decided in court proceedings. We have no discretion to do so.
12. The Council considers the issue of contact with the children as part of the looked after child (LAC) reviews. We have already considered and decided a separate complaint from Mr X about issues relating to the LAC reviews. Mr X has confirmed he is not seeking to repeat his complaint about those matters.
13. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s decision not to consider his complaint. This is because it is unlikely we would find fault by the Council. It considered the content of Mr X’s complaint and decided not to consider it via the complaints procedure. It clearly explained the reasons for its decision in its correspondence with Mr X. It is a decision it is entitled to make and there is nothing further we could add. It is not our role to question the merits of the Council’s decisions where there is no sign of fault in the process by which it was reached.

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Final decision

14. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. This is because we cannot investigate his complaint about contact with his children because this was decided by the courts and it is unlikely we would find fault in relation to the Council’s decision not to consider his complaint.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman