Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about matters relating to a child and family assessment. This is because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to consider the complaint whilst the case is subject to ongoing family court proceedings.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council completed and authorised a child and family assessment without consulting or serving him despite him having parental responsibility for his child. The Council has not provided information he has requested in relation to it. He says the report contains errors and omits important safeguarding information. The court now has an assessment that omits his account, evidence and safeguarding concerns and this could prejudice his position in the proceedings.

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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 or continue an investigation if we decide:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• there is another body better placed to consider this complaint. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

4. We normally expect someone to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner if they have a complaint about data protection. However, we may decide to investigate if we think there are good reasons. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
5. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
6. 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

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

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My assessment

9. Mr X complained to the Council about the matters set out in paragraph one, above. He also made a subject access request and rectification request.
10. The Council told Mr X it will not consider his complaint whilst the case is subject to ongoing court proceedings, and signposted him to this office.
11. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to consider Mr X’s complaint whilst the case is being considered in ongoing family court proceedings. This is to ensure the proceedings are not put at risk of being prejudiced by a concurrent investigation. It is a decision the Council has discretion to make. It will be open to Mr X to resubmit his complaint to the Council once the proceedings have concluded to see whether there are any residual matters it can consider via its complaints procedure which were not, and could not have been, raised during the proceedings.
12. We cannot consider complaints about matters that are being, or have been, considered in court proceedings. Such matters lie outside our jurisdiction and we have no discretion to consider them.
13. This restriction means we cannot consider complaints about evidence and reports the Council has provided to the court or about the preparation of evidence and reports for the courts as it is not clearly separable from the proceedings. Any dissatisfaction with the preparation and content of the reports should be raised to the court during the proceedings so that they can be considered before the proceedings end and a final decision is made. It is not a matter we have any discretion to consider.
14. The data matters Mr X has raised are best considered and decided by the Information Commissioner’s Office as it is the body set up to consider complaints about data matters such as these.

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Final decision

15. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s’ decision not to consider his complaint whilst the case is subject to ongoing family court proceedings.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman