Summary: We cannot investigate Mrs X’s complaint because it is about matters that have been subject to court proceedings.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains that the Council ignored relevant healthcare information when it presented information to the family courts.

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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 cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, 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. I cannot investigate Mrs X’s complaint. This is because it is about matters that have been considered and decided in court proceedings. The law says we cannot consider complaints about matters that have been considered in court proceedings or about what happened in court. This restriction also means we cannot consider evidence provided to the court during proceedings. Any dissatisfaction with the court’s decision would need to be returned to the court. We cannot consider it.
8. Even if there were issues which could be separated out from the court proceedings, we would not investigate them now. Whilst I sympathise with the struggles that Mrs X has faced, the issues she complains about go back several years and I see no good reason why they could not have been raised sooner.

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Final decision

9. We cannot investigate Mrs X’s complaint because it concerns matters that have been considered in court.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman