Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council (21 008 137)
Category : Children's care services > Other
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 18 Oct 2021
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s response to Ms X’s complaint about access to her grandchildren. This is because the Council has no power to grant her access to the children and so she has not been caused an injustice as a result of the Council’s actions.
The complaint
- Ms X complains the Council has not helped her get access to see her grandchildren. She says the Council’s actions have resulted in her incurring significant legal fees.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- The Council cannot force a parent to give a relative access to a child. Only the courts can make such and order. Therefore we will not investigate this complaint as we cannot achieve the outcome Ms X is seeking.
- Ms X is unhappy with the way the Council has responded to her complaints. The Council is limited in information it can share with Ms X as she does not have parental responsibility for the children and the Council does not have consent to share information with her. Even if we found fault in the Council’s response we could not show that this caused Ms X an injustice as the Council has no power to grant her access to her grandchildren. Therefore, we will not investigate this complaint.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because she has not been caused an injustice as a result of any fault by the Council.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman