Summary: The Ombudsman should not investigate this complaint about the Council’s involvement with Mr B’s children. This is mainly because some of the complaint concerns court proceedings.

The complaint

1. Mr B complains the Council has not dealt properly with him about its involvement in matters concerning his children. He states that, as a result, he is not having contact with his children.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
3. We have the power to start or discontinue an investigation into a complaint within our jurisdiction. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we think the issues could reasonably be, or have been, raised within a court of law. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered the information Mr B provided and discussed the complaint with him. I obtained from the Council copies of the complaint correspondence and relevant court orders, which I considered. I gave Mr B the opportunity to comment on my draft decision.

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What I found

5. Mr B has been involved in private family court proceedings about his children. The Council had some involvement with those proceedings and has also dealt with the children as ‘children in need.’
6. The family court ordered when Mr B should have contact with his children. A later court order said the arrangements in the previous order should be subject to the children’s wishes and feelings.
7. During the family court proceedings, the court ordered the Council to produce reports for the court, known as section 7 and section 37 reports. Mr B believes the Council was at fault in how it went about preparing the reports, including for allegedly inadequate contact with him. He also criticises the reports’ contents. The court orders such reports so everything related to those reports forms part of the court proceedings. So the restriction in paragraph 2 prevents the Ombudsman pursuing any complaint about the preparation or content of such reports.
8. Mr B is also dissatisfied with some other aspects of the Council’s involvement. This includes: delay sending him minutes of ‘children in need’ (CIN) meetings; the disclosure of information related to someone else at a CIN meeting; the Council’s involvement in contact arrangements between him and his children, including whether it has properly found out and relayed his children’s wishes and feelings about contact with him; and the Council only providing two of seven planned support work sessions with him.
9. Mr B says the impact of the Council’s alleged faults is that he has not seen his children for some time and will have the expense of going back to court to enforce the order about contact.
10. I understand Mr B’s concern at going back to court and the financial implications. However, in effect, Mr B is arguing the court order is not being properly followed in terms of his children’s contact with him. That is properly a matter for the court. The court can enforce its order and say how contact should happen. The Ombudsman cannot do that. Nor is it the Ombudsman’s place to decide whether the Council (or anyone else) has properly followed a court order.
11. I also note the Council has said it can arrange the further support work sessions with Mr B. Mr B believes the Council should not have ended its involvement with the children while this work was incomplete. However, I consider the key point here is that if Mr B wants the further sessions, he can arrange them. I do not consider I can achieve more than that.
12. For these reasons, I shall not take any further action on this complaint.

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Final decision

13. The Ombudsman should not investigate this complaint. This is because the court reports are part of court proceedings, the Council is offering the outstanding support work and the court is best placed to resolve any dispute about contact.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman