Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about a court ordered report produced for ongoing family court proceedings. This is because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to consider her complaint until the proceedings have concluded.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains about the Council’s court ordered welfare report which it completed for ongoing proceedings for her children. She raised numerous concerns about inaccuracies; bias and omissions in the report. This includes concerns that the report fails to prioritize her children’s welfare; is biased in favour of the children’s father and ignores potential safety risks to her children. Miss X says the Council’s handling of the matter has caused her and her children significant stress and anxiety and it has impacted her mental health.

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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 effect 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 an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
3. We do not start 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 Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
5. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information provided by the complainant.
7. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

8. Miss X complained to the Council about the court ordered Section 7 report completed for ongoing proceedings.
9. The Council told Miss X it would not consider her complaint whilst the case is being considered in the ongoing court proceedings. It explained that Miss X would be able to ask the Council to consider any residual matters, not considered and decided by the court, once the court proceedings have ended. It signposted Miss X to this office if she was dissatisfied with its decision.
10. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint. This is because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to consider her complaint whilst the matter is subject to ongoing proceedings. This is a decision the Council is entitled to make in line with its policy and the relevant statutory guidance which gives it discretion to decide not to consider a complaint where there are concurrent proceedings. This is to ensure the proceedings are not put at risk of being prejudiced by a concurrent complaint investigation. As set out in the Council’s response, it will be open to Miss X to resubmit her complaint for consideration once the proceedings have concluded.
11. We cannot consider the substantive complaint about the court report. The law prevents us from investigating complaints about matters that are being, or have been, considered in court proceedings, or which could have been raised and considered in court. This restriction means we cannot consider complaints about court reports. Because the section 7 report forms part of court proceedings we have no jurisdiction to investigate complaints about their preparation or content.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to investigate her complaint until the ongoing proceedings have concluded.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman