Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about in delays in providing a service by the Council’s Children and Family Wellbeing Service regarding an application for a Court Arrangements Order. This is because part of the complaint is made late and is out of our jurisdiction, and there is nothing further that we could achieve in respect of the follow up complaint.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I refer to here as Mr M, says that the Council:
• Delayed in dealing with an application for a Court Arrangements Order (CAO) in respect of Mr M’s children; and
• Delayed in providing a report for the court, and was untruthful about the reasons for the delay.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
4. 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 we could add to any previous investigation by the Council (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered the information provided by Mr M and by the Council. I have also sent Mr M a draft decision for his comments.

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What I found

6. Mr M and his ex-partner have two children, for whom an application was made to court for a CAO. In August 2019 an order was passed by consent that the application would be dealt with through mediation via the Council’s Children and Family Wellbeing Service.
7. The Council did not visit Mr M or begin the process until October 2019. Mr M says he tried to contact the Council in August and September, but had no response. The Council says it did not receive his communications.
8. Mr M complained about the delay and had a final response from the Council in November 2019 referring him to the LGSCO.
9. Mr M brought the complaint to the LGSCO in December in December 2020. We will not investigate it because it is made late. We may not investigate complaints brought to us more than 12 months after the complainant knew about the issue, unless there are good reasons for us to exercise discretion to do so. In this case, Mr M complained to the LGSCO more than 12 months after he was referred to our service, and I have seen no good reasons to exercise discretion to consider the complaint now.
10. A further court order, for the Council to produce a report for the courts, was made in court in November 2019. The report was to be completed by mid February 2020, but was not filed until March.
11. Although the Council initially denied receiving the order before February 2020, its legal department later clarified that the order had been sent to the Council by solicitors for Mr M’s ex partner in December 2019, and it had been overlooked until February 2020.
12. Mr M is unhappy with the response as he says the Council’s action delayed the report and had made it more difficult for the family to mend relationships. We will not investigate the issue however. This is because the Council apologised for the error, and although the report was filed late, it was none the less made available to the Magistrates in advance of the hearing. There is nothing more that we could achieve through additional investigation of the issue.

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Final decision

13. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because part of it is made late, and there is nothing we could add to the Council’s response to the follow up issue.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman