Summary: We cannot investigate Ms X’s complaint about the accuracy of information the Council gave a Court and the way it was prepared. This forms part of legal proceedings which we cannot investigate.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Ms X, says the Council did not provide a Court with correct information. She says this meant the Court made the wrong order.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
3. 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)
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 we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered the information Ms X provided with her complaint. I considered Ms X comments on a draft version of this decision.

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What I found

6. Ms X gave birth to a child, D, in 2018. The Council held pre birth child protection conferences in 2018. In September 2019, the Court decided that D should be cared for by a grandparent and granted a Special Guardianship Order (SGO).
7. In May 2019, an organisation which provided information about the family confirmed that the information it had provided was incorrect. It provided the corrected information. Ms X says the Council did not put this corrected information in the Court bundles, this is the evidence provided to the Court. She says this meant the Court granted the SGO without knowing the full facts. She says D is not safe with their SGO.
8. Ms X says the officers involved committed misconduct in the way they processed the information and prepared the information for Court.
9. She says the wrong officers were appointed to the case generally.

Analysis

10. We cannot investigate the accuracy of the information the Council gave the Court which it relied on to reach its decision.
11. We cannot investigate the Council’s officers’ prior actions taken by a council specifically directed at deciding whether to issue Court proceedings.
12. We cannot investigate the preparation, collation, and analysis of evidence, used in Court proceedings, or the behaviour of officers when they are doing this.
13. We cannot achieve the outcome Ms X wants of the SGO revocation or more contact with D. Only a Court can do this.
14. It is reasonable to have expected Ms X to have told the Court about any flaws she sees in the Council’s evidence at the September 2019 hearing.

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Final decision

15. We cannot investigate this complaint. This is because we cannot investigate the evidence the Council gave, nor its involvement in, Court proceedings.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman