Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about her lack of contact with her grandchild, who the Council placed on foster care. The law prevents us from investigating anything that has been the subject of court proceedings. It would be reasonable for Mrs X to take her concerns about court ordered contact arrangements back to court.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains the Council has denied her and her family appropriate access and contact with her grandchild, who has been placed in foster care. Mrs X believes the Council is failing to comply with court orders about her contact with her grandchild. She has not seen her grandchild for five years which causes her significant distress. She wants the Council to comply with the court orders.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
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 have the power to start or end an investigation into a complaint about actions the law allows us to investigate. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we think the issues could reasonably be or have been mentioned as part of the legal proceedings regarding a closely related matter. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8), as amended, section 34(B))

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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. The Council has explained to Mrs X that some of her complaints about the Social Worker previously allocated to her grandchild’s case are late. These related in part to events from 2019 and 2023.
8. The Council has also explained Mrs X’s grandchild has currently expressed a wish not to have direct contact with Mrs X or her family. The child is old enough to express such wishes, which the Council has a duty to respect.
9. Mrs X will need to return to court if she believes the Council is not complying with the terms of a court order in respect of her contact with her grandchild. Only the courts can decide whether to enforce the contact arrangements. We have no powers to intervene in such matters and cannot achieve the outcome Mrs X wants. We will therefore not investigate further.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because the court is better placed to deal with issues of compliance with court orders.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman