Summary: We will not investigate Miss B’s complaint that the Council failed to provide appropriate support for her and her daughter before and after private law proceedings. This is because the actions she complains about relate to matters which have been decided in court.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will refer to as Miss B, complains that the Council failed to provide appropriate support for her and her daughter before and after private law proceedings.

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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 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)
4. The Courts have said that we cannot investigate a complaint about any action by a council, concerning a matter which is itself out of our jurisdiction. (R (on the application of M) v Commissioner for Local Administration [2006] EHWCC 2847 (Admin))
5. 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

6. I have considered what Miss B has said in support of her complaint and the correspondence she has provided. I have offered Miss B the opportunity to comment on a draft of this decision.

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What I found

7. Miss B’s daughter was the subject of private law proceedings, as a result of which she went to live with her father. The Court made a Child Arrangement Order with no order for contact.
8. Miss B complains that the Council failed to give her and her daughter an appropriate level of support before the court hearing. She argues that the Council’s social worker acted with bias in favour of her daughter’s father. Specifically, she says the Section 37 report the social worker produced highlighted her own failings while making no mention of his. She also says she would have expected the social worker to ask the court for a contact order, but she did not do so.
9. We cannot investigate this aspect of Miss B’s complaint. By law, we cannot investigate what happens in court. The Courts have also held that we cannot consider any action by a council concerning a matter which falls outside our jurisdiction, such as the production or content of court reports. The matters Miss B has complained about are not separable from the matters before the Court. That being the case, we cannot investigate them. If Miss B felt the social worker’s actions had disadvantaged her, she could have raised this in court.
10. Since the court case concluded, Miss B says the Council has failed to facilitate contact with her daughter, and has closed her daughter’s case. In response, the Council has told her it has no concerns about her daughter’s welfare and, as the Court did not make a contact order, this is now a private matter. Miss B believes this is unreasonable.
11. The Ombudsman will not investigate these matters. If Miss B is unhappy with contact arrangements, her recourse is to go back to court to ask for variation of the Child Arrangement Order. It would be reasonable for her to do so and we will not intervene.

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Final decision

12. We cannot investigate this complaint. This is because the actions Miss B complains about relate to matters which have been decided in court.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman