Newcastle upon Tyne City Council (19 009 884)

Category : Children's care services > Other

Decision : Closed after initial enquiries

Decision date : 20 Nov 2019

The Ombudsman's final decision:

Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr and Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s assessment and report for court regarding their grandchild and its complaint handling. The Council’s assessment is outside the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction being part of court proceedings. The Council has apologised for the fault in the complaint handling.

The complaint

  1. Mr and Mrs X complain that: a) the Council’s assessment and court report regarding their grandchild was inaccurate and biased in favour of the maternal family; b) that at a meeting in early 2019 the Council’s social worker failed to acknowledge the role of Mrs X and did not involve her; and c) that their grandchild had six different social workers.
  2. Mr and Mrs X complain the Council delayed six months in arranging to deal with their complaint at stage 2 of its complaint procedure. They now want the Ombudsman to investigate.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

  1. 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:
  • the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
  • 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. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
  1. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

  1. I have considered Mr and Mrs X’s comments and the reply to my draft decision statement. I have considered the complaint correspondence and clarified with the Council what happened at court.

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What I found

  1. In 2018 a maternal relative of child A applied to court for a child arrangement order. The Court asked the Council to provide a ‘section 7’ welfare report on the child which it did at the end of the year. The Council says the Court decided, in 2019, to make an order for shared care of child A between the maternal relative and the father. Mr and Mrs X are the parents of the father.
  2. In January 2019 Mrs X complained to the Council about the content of the court report (missing key information), the involvement of different social workers, a social worker not providing updates on the situation and the conduct of a meeting that month. On 6 February the Council replied in detail to the complaints. Mrs X was not satisfied and requested stage 2 of the complaint procedure.
  3. The Council has apologised to Mr and Mrs X for the 6-month delay in arranging stage 2 which it says was due to complaint officers being away from work. The Council says five social workers were involved in the case over about 8 months. It has explained the reason for the changes.
  4. Mrs X says her complaint is about the ‘process and timescales’ of the complaint handling and the social worker’s assessment of the family. She says the assessment was done in 4 weeks not eight and was based on a one hour home visit and a 30 minute meeting at school.

Analysis

  1. I will not investigate this complaint for the following reasons:
      1. The Ombudsman cannot investigate what happened during the court proceedings (see paragraph 4 above). This includes the Council’s assessment and the court report. If Mr and Mrs X or their son wanted to challenge the Council’s evidence or view regarding Child A’s welfare the place to do so was at court.
      2. There is insufficient injustice to investigate what happened to Mrs X at the meeting held in January 2019.
      3. The Council has explained why there were five changes of social worker during the court proceedings. There is insufficient reason to investigate and no injustice to Mr and Mrs X.
      4. The Council has apologised for the fault in its complaint handling. There is no reason for the Council to deal with the complaints further and no ongoing injustice to Mr and Mrs X.

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Final decision

  1. The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr and Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s assessment for court and its complaint handling. The Council’s assessment is outside the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction being part of court proceedings. The Council has apologised for the fault in the complaint handling.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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