Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of care of the complainant’s children. This is because we could not add to any previous investigation by the Council, any investigation would not lead to a different outcome, and any fault has not caused significant injustice. We will not investigate part of this complaint because it is late and there is no reason why the complainant could not have come to us sooner. We cannot investigate part of this complaint as the court made decisions about care arrangements and the law prevents us from investigating them.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains about how the Council has handled the care of her children. She says the Council has not given her the support she has asked for and complains about the conduct of officers. She also says the Council has not investigated allegations, breached a court order and cancelled contact sessions at short notice.

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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 cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
5. We investigate 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 continue an investigation if we decide:

• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• 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), as amended, section 34(B))

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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. Mrs X complains she has not been offered the support she requested, such as parenting courses. She says her children were separated despite a court ordering them to remain together in care. Mrs X also complained about the conduct of an officer during a contact session. The Council, in its response, says these matters have been or could have been considered by the court during care proceedings. The law prevents us from investigating matters which have been or are closely related to what was considered in court.
9. Mrs X says the Council did not sufficiently investigate an injury to her child while in care. The incident took place more than three years ago as did the Council’s investigation. We will not investigate when a complainant has taken more than 12 months to complain to us and there are no good reasons why they could not have come to us sooner. That is the case here.
10. Mrs X says on more than one occasion, contact sessions with her children have been cancelled. The evidence shows during a contact session in November 2024, one child did not attend. The session was rearranged for later that month. The Council admits fault for this and has apologised to Mrs X. One session was cancelled in November 2025 at short notice, through no fault of the Council. The Council rearranged to a date within two weeks of the cancelled session. A further cancellation was instigated by Mrs X due to illness.
11. The Council investigated the missed contact sessions and has taken action where necessary. It has also apologised to Mrs X during the complaints process. We will not investigate this matter as any investigation by us would could not add to the investigation by the Council nor would it lead to a different outcome.
12. Mrs X says she has been asked to provide documents again, despite having already given them to the Council. The Council says it cannot find the documents and asks Mrs X to provide them again. Any fault has not caused significant injustice to Mrs X therefore does not justify our involvement.

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Final decision

13. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because we could not add to any previous investigation by the Council, any investigation would not lead to a different outcome and any fault has not caused significant injustice. We will not investigate part of this complaint because it is late and there are no good reasons why Mrs X could not have complained to us sooner. We cannot investigate Mrs X’s complaint because it concerns matters which have been or could have been considered in court.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman