Summary: We will not investigate Mr B’s complaint that the Council has refused to allow his complaint to go to the final stage of the statutory children’s services procedure. This is because there is nothing significant to be gained by doing so.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who will refer to as Mr B, complains that the Council has refused to allow his complaint to go to the final stage of the statutory children’s services procedure.

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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 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)
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)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I have considered what Mr B has said in support of his complaint and relevant correspondence provided by the Council. I have offered Mr B the opportunity to comment on a draft of my decision.

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What I found

5. In 2017 Mr B’s daughter was the subject of private legal proceedings relating to care and contact. At that point, Mr B had care of his daughter and the Council was involved with contact arrangements.
6. Mr B made a complaint about the Council’s actions, which was considered under the statutory procedure for children’s services complaints. The complaint completed the second stage of the three-stage procedure in March 2018. It was not upheld.
7. Mr B requested that the complaint progress to Stage 3, as he had the right to do. The Council failed to act on his request until October 2020. Given the passage of time, and the fact that the matters have subsequently been considered in court, the Council declined to allow the complaint to progress. It apologised for failing to act on Mr B’s request in a timely manner and offered him a payment of £250 in recognition of his lost opportunity.
8. Mr B believes the Council’s decision is unreasonable. He also blames the failure to progress his complaint for his subsequent loss of care of his daughter.
9. Complainants have a right to access all stages of the statutory complaints procedure, and the Council accepts that it was at fault in failing to act on Mr B’s request. In the circumstances, the question for the Ombudsman is whether there is anything significant to be gained from the Ombudsman’s intervention at this stage.
10. As the issues which gave rise to the original complaint, relating to the care of and contact with Mr B’s daughter, have been considered in court there is nothing to be gained from investigation. We cannot consider matters which have been decided in court and therefore would be unlikely to investigate the matters Mr B complained about.
11. Given that we will take no view on the substantive issues, the payment the Council has made provides a reasonable recognition of the fault on the Council’s part and Mr B’s lost opportunity to go to Stage 3. There is therefore nothing further to be gained from investigation by the Ombudsman, and we will not intervene.

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Final decision

12. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because there is nothing significant to be achieved by doing so.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman