Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council preventing contact with his son. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify an investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council has prevented contact with his son and did not provide reasonable adjustments to help him to make a complaint.

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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:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.

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

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Mr X complains the Council gave inaccurate legal advice to his sons’ mother and failed to enforce court-ordered contact with his son. The Council said it advised both parents contact was a private law matter and it had no enforcement powers. It says it told Mr X’s sons’ mother she should tell the court if she decided to stop contact.
6. Mr X says the Council should not have told his sons’ mother when he decided to collect his son from school. The Council said it was trying to protect his son by ensuring he did not witness further parental conflict.
7. I will not investigate this complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault. The advice the Council gave both parents was correct. It has acted in the best interests of Mr X’s son when sharing information about his plans to collect him from school.
8. Mr X would like the Council to remove his son from his mother’s care. While the Council have said contact with Mr X would be good for his son, it does not have the power to remove his son from his mothers care on this basis. This decision would be made by the court.
9. Mr X also complains the Council did not make reasonable adjustments to enable him to access the complaints process. It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint handling when we are not investigating the substantive matter.

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Final decision

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

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman