Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s involvement with his children. Neither we nor the Council can achieve the outcomes Mr X is seeking. Only the courts can decide on the care and contact arrangements for Mr X’s children.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council has failed to help him have contact with his children since April 2025. He also complains the Council has not provide updates about his children to him during this time. Mr X says this has caused him and his children distress and impacted on their relationship. He wants the Council to restore contact urgently and to provide meaningful updates. He also wants the Council to explain its failures and prevent reoccurrence.

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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 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
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants, or
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

4. 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)
5. 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

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. The Council explained to Mr X it could not consider his complaints about its handling while the courts were considering the same issue.
9. The Council responded to Mr X’s complaint after court proceedings had ended. It explained the limitations of its role in the care and contact arrangements for his children. The court had decided Mr X has to have supervised contact with his children and that they should live with their mother. The court also placed limitations on Mr X’s ability to return to court until he had completed specific action.
10. Any arrangements about care and contact of children is a private matter between the people who have parental responsibility. Where those people cannot agree on those arrangements, only the court has the power to intervene and make decisions about what arrangements would be in the children’s best interests and on any matters of dispute.
11. We will not investigate this complaint because neither we nor the Council can make decisions about Mr X’s contact with his children. Although currently restricted, it remains reasonable for Mr X to take any outstanding concerns he has about arrangements for his children to court when this becomes available.
12. We will not investigate because there is unlikely to be evidence of fault by the Council in its handling of this matter. We also cannot achieve the outcomes Mr X is seeking as those can only be provided by the court.

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Final decision

13. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault and we cannot achieve the outcomes the complainant wants.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman