Summary: We will not investigate this complaint as we are unlikely to find Mrs X has been caused any significant injustice by the fault she alleges against Children Services.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Mrs X, complains about Children Services actions.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate 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 continue an investigation if we decide:
• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
3. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
6. The Mrs X commented on a draft version of this decision.

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My assessment

7. Mrs X is involved with children services. There have been Court proceedings about her children’s care. Mrs X says the Council has not recently been replying to her complaints. She says an officer has lied about trying to meet her. She says the Council’s single point of access arrangements are not working properly.
8. The Council has told Mrs X that it needs her to compile a succinct list of complaints. Mrs X says she should not have to do this. She says her emails to the Council should be enough.
9. The Council says it has checked her emails. It says they are either about issues within Court proceedings, or connected with another complaint within the Children Act statutory complaints’ procedure. The Council has directed Mrs X appropriately on her claims for compensation.
10. We cannot investigate issues which are part of Court proceedings. We also would not investigate issues about the statutory complaint as we have another complaint concerning that. The Council’s response to Mrs X’s newer separate complaints is not one we are likely to find fault with that has caused her any significant injustice.
11. Mrs X says she is specifically complaining that an officer says they tried to meet with her. She says this is not true. This has not caused Mrs X enough injustice to warrant an investigation.

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Final decision

12. We will not and cannot investigate this complaint. This is because we cannot investigate complaints relating to Court proceedings. And we are unlikely to find she has been caused any significant injustice by any fault in the remaining issues.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman