Summary: We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint about matters that have been subject to court proceedings because it lies outside our jurisdiction. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about a social worker’s communication with him because the Council has not considered it via its full complaints procedure.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X, complains the social worker allocated to his family’s case which was considered in court proceedings was biased against him in favour of the mother of his children. He also complained the social worker’s communication with him not always professional.

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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 effect 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 an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
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)
5. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint unless we are satisfied the organisation knows about the complaint and has had an opportunity to investigate and reply. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to notify the organisation of the complaint and give it an opportunity to investigate and reply. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(5), section 34(B)6)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

8. Mr X complained to the Council about its handling of his family’s case which has been subject to court proceedings. He said the allocated social worker was biased in favour of the mother of his children, He also complained the social worker was not always professional in his communication, which included talking over him during a telephone call.
9. The Council told Mr X it could not investigate his complaint about matters that had been in court and it could not consider the court’s decision or how the case was handled in court. It advised Mr X to raise any concerns about the court proceedings to the court directly or via his legal representative. It said it could investigate Mr X’s point of complaint about the social worker’s communication with him and it asked Mr X to confirm whether he wanted to proceed with this. The Council did not receive a response from Mr X and so it has not considered this point via its complaints procedure.
10. We cannot consider Mr X’s complaint about matters that have been subject to court proceedings because it lies outside our jurisdiction. The law prevents us from investigating complaints about matters that have been or could have been raised and considered in the court proceedings. We have no discretion to do so.
11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the social worker’s communication with him because the Council has not yet had the opportunity to consider it via its full complaints procedure. It remains open to Mr X to ask the Council to consider it. We are the final stage following the Council’s final complaint response and so we do not consider matters that have not completed the Council’s complaints procedure.

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Final decision

12. We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint about matters relating to the court proceedings because it lies outside our jurisdiction and we have no discretion consider it. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the social worker’s communication because it has not yet completed the Council’s complaints procedure.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman