Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council not following its complaints’ procedure properly. We would not investigate Ms X original complaint to the Council and therefore we will not investigate how it replied to it.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Ms X, says the Council has failed to reply properly to her complaint.

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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))

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered the information Ms X provided with her complaint which included the Council’s responses. I considered Ms X’s comments on a draft version of this decision.

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What I found

6. Ms X says she complained to the Council in February with three emails. She says the Council has not considered her complaints within its complaints’ procedure but instead has just added them to the file. She says she has a right to have her complaint escalated. She says the Council’s replies have not allowed her to do so or signposted her.
7. The Council replied to Ms X complaint in early February. It amended the letter in early March 2021 and reissued it. It says this reply was to Ms X’s complaints in January 2021 which she asked the Council to escalate in February.
8. The Council’s reply divided Ms X’s complaint into three parts:
1. The Council acting fraudulently in court proceedings. The Council said this was not suitable for its complaints’ procedures because we have previously considered and decided a complaint from Ms X which covers this. And the complaints procedure would not cover matters raised in Court proceedings.
2. Issues with the Council providing contact sessions reports late, some of which are missing and some have inappropriate editing. Ms X complained about officers delivering the reports by hand. The Council confirmed it had now provided all the reports it felt it had to. It had agreed to send reports by post or email.
3. Ms X’s requests for information about birth certificates, school details and court proceedings. Also she queried a letter. The Council said it believed it had provided all the information Ms X was entitled to see. It told Ms X to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) if she remained unhappy.

Analysis

9. Ms X’s complaint is not one which is automatically entitled to a response within the children services statutory complaint process.
10. The reissued letter in early March does included escalation details. It also signposts Ms X to us and to the ICO.
11. We would not investigate Ms X’s complaint made to the Council in January 2021 because:
1. We cannot investigate the Council’s conduct within Court proceedings;
2. We have previously considered and decided related complaints;
3. Ms X has said there are errors in Council documents. She has a right to ask records are ‘rectified’. This means any factual inaccuracies are corrected. If the Council refuses to do so, she can complain to ICO. Parliament set up the ICO to consider data protection disputes which includes ‘right to rectification’ disputes. The ICO are better placed than us to consider if the Council should change its records because there are complex exemptions for child protection case files and
4. Ms X can also complain to the ICO about her dispute that she has not received the documents and information she believes she is entitled to.
5. There is nothing more significant we could add to the complaints outlined in 8b above, other than already provided by the Council.
6. It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue.

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Final decision

12. We will not and cannot investigate this complaint. This is because we cannot and would not investigate the reasons Ms X complained to the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman