Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the social worker allocated to his family’s case. This is because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to consider his complaint whilst there are ongoing court proceedings.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the social worker allocated to their case is dangerously incompetent and about the impact this is having on the case which is subject to ongoing family court 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 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))
3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. 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

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

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My assessment

7. The Council told Mr X it would not consider his complaint because the case was subject to ongoing court proceedings. It advised Mr X to raise his concerns during the proceedings and signposted him to this office if he was dissatisfied with its decision.
8. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. This is 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. It is a decision the Council has discretion to make, in line with the relevant statutory guidance on the handling of children’s services complaints where there are ongoing proceedings. This is to ensure the proceedings are not put at any risk of being prejudiced by a concurrent complaint investigation.
9. Once the court proceedings have concluded, it will be open to Mr X to resubmit his complaint to the Council. It can then decide whether there are any residual matters it can consider via its complaints procedure.
10. 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 the proceedings. We have no discretion to do so.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to investigate his complaint whilst there are ongoing court proceedings.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman