Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of her child’s care placement. The matters were raised in Court. There is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s refusal of her complaint.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains about the Council’s handling of her child’s care placement. She says the Council did not follow correct procedures and placed her child in unsafe care. She also complains about mishandlings in the parenting assessments and contact arrangements with her child.
2. Miss X says the matter has caused her distress and impacted her relationship with her child. She wants the Council to acknowledge the impact on her and to apologise to her. She also wants the Council to investigate her child’s care placement.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

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. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
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 Miss X and the Council.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. The Council refused to consider Miss X’s complaint due to ongoing related Court proceedings at the time. It instead directed Miss X to raise her concerns to the Court, either directly or through her legal representative.
8. Since Miss X complained to us, those court proceedings have ended. The Council has advised that her concerns were raised and addressed in Court and that it has not received further complaints from Miss X about this matter.
9. Councils can refuse complaints if it could prejudice a concurrent investigation, including Court proceedings. Therefore, I consider it was open to the Council to refuse Miss X’s complaint at the time and there is not enough evidence of fault on this point to justify us investigating.
10. As Miss X’s concerns were raised and addressed in Court, further investigation by us is not warranted.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because the matters were raised in Court and because there is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s refusal of her complaint.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman