Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council dealt with matters concerning the contact between the complainant and her children. This is because we could not add to the investigation carried out by the Council and because it would be reasonable for the complainant to return to court.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains about how the Council has dealt with matters relating to her contact with her children. Ms X’s children are in foster care and a no contact order is in place.

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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:

• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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)
4. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. Many of the issues raised by Ms X raised relate to her disagreement that a no contact order should be in place for her children. I cannot investigate the decision to implement the no contact order because this was a decision made during court proceedings and is therefore out of our jurisdiction. If Ms X believes the order should be changed then it is reasonable for her to return to court. Only the courts can make changes to a no contact order, and this is therefore not an outcome the Ombudsman can achieve.
8. There were some points to Ms X’s complaint that are separable from the implementation of the no contact order and which the Council upheld. The Council accepted that communication with Ms X could have been better, that it hadn’t always updated Ms X about the progress of her children and that it had lost presents that she had brought for the children.
9. However, I will not investigate these points. This is because the Council has apologised to Ms X offered to reimburse her for the lost presents and made service improvements to avoid the same issues occurring again. The steps taken by the Council regarding these points are appropriate, proportionate and in line with our guidance on remedies. For these reasons investigation by the Ombudsman could not add to the one carried out by the Council.
10. I will also not investigate other points raised by Ms X that were not upheld by the Council during its investigation. In responding to Ms X’s complaint, the Council fully justified and explained to Ms X why it had taken the action it had regarding each point raised. Having considered each point carefully I do not consider that further investigation into these points would add to the investigation already carried out by the Council.
11. Finally, I will not investigate how the Council dealt with Ms X’s complaint. This is because it is not a good use of public funds to investigate complaint handling when we have decided not to investigate the substantive issues raised in a complaint.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because we could not add to the investigation carried out by the Council. It would be reasonable for Ms X to return to court to seek changes to the contact order in place.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman