Summary: The Ombudsman cannot investigate Miss X’s complaint about the Council’s children social worker’s actions and assessment report. The Court ordered the report and we cannot investigate legal proceedings.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Miss X, complains about a social worker’s approach to her case and their assessment of her children’s care arrangements.

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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 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 there is another body better placed to consider this complaint. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered the information Miss X provided with her complaint which included the Council’s reply. Miss X had the opportunity to comment on a draft version of this decision.

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What I found

Background

5. Miss X separated from her two children’s father, Z. She shared the children’s care with Z. The children stayed with her four nights a week. Miss X started a relationship with Y. Due to Y’s history, the Council’s children services team assessed the children’s safety. Miss X said she would ensure Y would never see the children.
6. Z decided to stop the children from staying with Miss X. Court proceedings started about the children’s care arrangements. These ended in November 2019. The Court ordered the Council to provide an assessment report on the children circumstances and welfare.
7. Miss X complains about the attitude of the social worker appointed to the case. She disagrees with their approach in meetings, the words they used and the content of the report they prepared.
8. Miss X complained to the Council. It said it could not investigate within its complaint procedures the issues Miss X raised as the Court had made the crucial decisions.

Analysis

9. We cannot investigate the preparation and content of an assessment report ordered by a Court.
10. We cannot investigate the Court’s decisions.
11. It would be difficult to investigate the social worker’s actions or manner separately from the Court report. Our role is to investigate the actions of the Council as a corporate body, not to hold a single officer accountable. If Miss X has concerns about the professionalism or integrity of an individual social worker, it is reasonable to expect her to report her concerns to their professional body, Social Work England.

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Final decision

12. The Ombudsman cannot investigate this complaint. This is because we cannot investigate Court reports

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman