Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint that a Council officer made inappropriate comments. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s refusal to investigate while court proceedings are ongoing.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains that the Council’s independent review officer, appointed to support her during care proceedings for her child, is neither independent nor supportive.
2. Miss X says the officer made inappropriate and distressing comments which the Council refused to investigate due to ongoing court proceedings.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
4. 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

5. I considered information provided by Miss X.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. Statutory guidance says a council can refuse to investigate a complaint about children’s services if it considers doing so may prejudice concurrent court proceedings.
8. The Council told Miss X it could not consider her complaint about its officer due to ongoing care proceedings. And that Miss X could resubmit a complaint about any matter not considered or decided by court after the proceedings had completed.
9. There is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s refusal to investigate, which is in line with the statutory guidance. And we will not investigate until the Council has had a chance to do so first.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman