Summary: The Ombudsman should not investigate Miss X’s complaint about children services actions in 2018. It is unlikely we could achieve a significantly different outcome.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Miss X, says the Council caused her child to leave her care.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word 'fault' to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe:
• it is unlikely we could add to any previous investigation by the Council, or
• it is unlikely further investigation will lead to a different outcome, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered the information Miss X, provided with her complaint and the Council’s replies to her which it provided. I considered Miss X’s comments on a draft version of this decision.

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What I found

4. Miss X has a child, D, aged 12, who she says in September 2018 became distressed at school. Miss X says D decided to go and stay with their father. Miss X says this was after the Council’s children services officers discussed the situation with them. Miss X says the Council carried out an assessment of D’s situation. Miss X says that assessment is inaccurate and unfair. She says the Council has not saved the detailed referral it made to D’s new Council.
5. Miss X says D has remained with their father since and she has not seen D this year. She says D would not have gone to live with their father if the Council’s children services team had not been involved.
6. The Council in reply to her complaint says it:
• placed her comments about its assessment with it.
• closed its case as D lives with her father in another Council’s area.
• could not prevent D living with their father as the father has parental responsibility for them.

Analysis

7. The Council cannot control the contact Miss X has with D. Only the Courts and D’s father can. Miss X has the power to apply to Court for contact. She has confirmed the Council told her this. We cannot get the contact for her.
8. It is unlikely we would achieve a significantly different remedy for an inaccurate assessment than Miss X’s comments being placed on the record with that assessment. Miss X can make a subject access request in line with the Data Protection Act to obtain all the information Miss X is entitled to see. It is reasonable to expect her to do this.

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Final decision

9. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because it is unlikely we could achieve a significantly different outcome.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman