Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s involvement with his child. The law prevents us from investigating anything that has or is the subject of court proceedings. It would also be reasonable for Mr X to pursue the other concerns he has with the Information Commissioner’s Office and Social Work England.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about various issues relating to the Council’s involvement with his family, including:

• fabricated information on court documents;
• bias, lack of care and failing to take responsibility;
• failing to take the child’s wishes and feelings into account and ignoring abuse by Mr X’s ex-partner;
• failing to maintain contact arrangements; and,
• not properly dealing with a Subject Access Request (SAR) and alleged data breaches.

Mr X wants the Council to apologise for lying and to work with him to resolve the issues.

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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 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)
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. When we find fault, we can recommend remedies for significant personal injustice, or to prevent future injustice, caused by that fault. We look at organisational fault, not individual professional competence. Decisions about individual’s fitness to practise or work are for the organisations concerned, and for professional regulators, not the Ombudsman. (Local Government Act 1974, s26(1) and s26A(1) as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

7. The Council has suggested Mr X seeks independent legal advice about pursuing his claims for compensation from the Council for its actions.
8. As part of private law proceedings involving children, the court may ask the Council to produce a section 7 or 37 report. The court will then consider the report as part of its decision making. Because section 7 and 37 reports form part of court proceedings, we have no jurisdiction to investigate their preparation or content. We therefore cannot investigate Mr X’s complaints about the content of the reports the Council has produced in his child’s case.
9. 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 child’s best interests and on any matters of dispute. We will not investigate this part of Mr X’s complaint because neither we nor the Council can make decisions about the care and contact arrangements for Mr X’s child. If Mr X has concerns that arrangements are not being followed, it would be reasonable for him to take these concerns back to court.
10. Mr X complains about how the Council has dealt with his Subject Access Request (SAR) and alleged data breaches. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is the UK’s independent authority set up to uphold information rights. We will not investigate these complaints because it is reasonable for Mr X to raise these issues with the ICO.
11. Finally, we will not investigate Mr X’s complaints about the conduct of individual social workers because these fall under the jurisdiction of Social Work England, the professional regulator for social workers.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the law prevents us from investigating anything that has or is the subject of court proceedings. It would also be reasonable for Mr X to pursue his other concerns with the Information Commissioner’s Office and Social Work England.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman