Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint that the Council provided a court with a biased report and did not follow up concerns about her children in 2018 and 2019. We cannot investigate what happens in a court and Ms X complains late, outside the 12-month permitted period.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains the Council wrote a court report which was biased and contained the wrong surname of one of her children.
2. Ms X complains the Council failed to follow up concerns about her children raised in 2018 and August 2019. She says she was not told that her children were distressed. The Council has refused to investigate her complaint saying matters should have been dealt with at court.
3. Ms X complains the Council did not deal with a request for records under the freedom of information law.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. We can decide whether to start or discontinue an investigation into a complaint within our jurisdiction. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8), as amended)
5. 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)
6. 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)
7. We normally expect someone to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner if they have a complaint about data protection or freedom of information. However, we may decide to investigate if we think there are good reasons. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

8. I have considered Ms X’s information and comments.

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What I found

9. I will not investigate Ms X’s complaint for the following reasons:
10. The Ombudsman cannot lawfully investigate actions which are part of court proceedings (see paragraph 5 above). This includes the content of a court report and recommendations.
11. Events before February 2020, which Ms X knew about, are outside our jurisdiction because the complaint is made outside the 12 months permitted period (see paragraph 6). This includes the events mentioned in 2018 and 2019. I will not exercise discretion to investigate because Ms X could have complained sooner. A child protection concern that happened before or during the court case would or could have been considered as part of the legal proceedings.
12. If the Council has not provided information in reply to either a freedom of information or subject access request Ms X may go to the Information Commissioner (paragraph 7). It is reasonable for her to do so because it is the specialist body and can require the Council to provide information.
13. We will not normally investigate complaint handling when the underlying issues are not being investigated and there is no reason to do so here. We cannot make recommendations about matters which are outside our jurisdiction.

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Final decision

14. The Ombudsman will not investigate Ms X’s complaint that the Council wrote a biased court report and failed to follow up concerns about her children in 2018 and 2019. We cannot investigate what happens in a court and Ms X complains late, outside the 12-month permitted period.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman