Essex County Council (20 009 008)
Category : Children's care services > Other
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 26 Jan 2021
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the content of a court report and a social worker’s actions in preparing it. These matters are not separable from the decision of the court and Mr X has a right to return to court it would be reasonable to use.
The complaint
- Mr X said a social worker was biased against him in preparing a court report. He said she gave him less opportunity than his former partner and ignored evidence he sent, failed to communicate properly, was administratively incompetent and wrote things that were not correct. He said this led to adverse impacts for his children. He wanted us to consider the effect of poor practice and for fathers to be treated equally.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- 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)
- We cannot investigate a complaint if someone has started court action about the matter. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
- The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I read Mr X’s complaint. I gave him an opportunity to comment on a draft decision.
What I found
- Mr X’s complaint concerns the actions of a social worker in writing a report for a court. However, the matters complained of are not separable from the court process in deciding the contact and residence arrangements of children. Mr X also has a right to return to court it would be reasonable to use.
Final decision
- We will not investigate this complaint. This is because the matters complained of are not separable from the court process and it would be reasonable for Mr X to return to court.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman