Summary: We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint about a social worker’s court report. It lies outside our jurisdiction because it has been considered in court proceedings. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s decision not to consider his complaint about the social worker until the court proceedings have concluded. This is because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Mr X, complains about a social worker’s court report and about the Council’s decision not to investigate his complaint about the actions of the social worker until ongoing family court proceedings have concluded. Mr X says the social worker presented false information to the court and this has led to him losing contact with his children.

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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. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
5. We do not start an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information provided by the complainant. This included Mr X’s correspondence with the Council.
7. I considered the Council’s children’s services complaints and representations procedure, which is published on its website.
8. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

9. Mr X complained to the Council about the actions of a social worker allocated to his case. The Council told Mr X it would not consider his complaint whilst there were ongoing court proceedings. It told Mr X it could consider his complaint once the court proceedings concluded.
10. There is no sign of fault in the Council’s approach here. This is in order to avoid prejudicing any ongoing court proceedings. It has reached this decision in line with its published children’s services complaints procedure which states:

“3.7 Regulation 8 specifies circumstances where a Council shall not consider a representation or complaint, or shall not continue to do so. The Council may use discretion in deciding whether to consider complaints where to do so would prejudice any of the following concurrent investigations:

• Court proceedings
• Tribunals
• Disciplinary proceedings
• Criminal proceedings.”

11. Mr X also complains about the social worker’s court report. The report has been considered by the court in family court proceedings.
12. We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint about the court report because it lies outside our jurisdiction. The law prevents us from investigating complaints about matters that have been considered in court. We have no discretion to do so. Any dissatisfaction with the contents of the report should have been raised by Mr X or his legal representative during the proceedings so that the court could consider them before reaching a decision.

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Final decision

13. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. This is because the complaint about the social worker’s report lies outside our jurisdiction and there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to consider his complaint until the court proceedings concluded.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman