Summary: We will not investigate the Council’s refusal to consider Mrs X’s complaint about the accuracy and content of the Council’s reports for the court and its handling of her data protection concerns. There is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s decision-making. The law prevents us from investigating anything that has been or is the subject of court proceedings. We also will not reinvestigate concerns Mrs X has already taken to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains about the Council’s refusal to consider her complaint under the statutory procedure for children social care because of court proceedings. Mrs X complains about factual inaccuracies and false statements. She also believes the Council has mishandled her safeguarding concerns about her grandchild, ignored evidence, retaliated after her complaints and obstructed her Subject Access Requests. She also alleges data breaches she believes have placed her family at risk. She wants the Council to complete an immediate investigation under stage two of the statutory procedure, correct inaccurate records and disclose personal data.

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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 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, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants, or
• there is another body better placed to consider this complaint. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

7. Mrs X complains about the way in which the Council has compiled a report about her grandchild for private legal proceedings about their care and contact arrangements. Mrs X is a party to those proceedings and appears to have legal representation. The Council has declined to investigate Mrs X complaints about this matter because it is the subject of court proceedings which excludes its consideration under its complaint procedure.
8. Both the Council’s corporate complaint procedure and the statutory procedure ‘Getting the Best from Complaints – Social Care Complaints and Representations for Children, Young People and Others’ contain provision to allow the Council to decline to investigate complaints on matters before the court. We are unlikely to criticise or find fault with the Council’s decision to reject a complaint which specifically relates to the content and accuracy of a report it has prepared for court. Mrs X should raise any concerns she has about the content of the Council’s report with the court, either directly or through her legal representatives. We have no jurisdiction to investigate or intervene on these matters in place of the court.
9. Mrs X’s other complaints relate to the way in which the Council has processed her Subject Access Request for personal data and its handling of two alleged data breaches she has reported to it. Mrs X has already complained to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The ICO found the Council had not properly notified Mrs X it had extended the timescale to process her Subject Access Request as it should have and decided not to pursue the alleged data breaches.
10. We will not investigate this aspect of Mrs X’s complaint. We would not be able to separate out any associated process issues when the ICO has already investigate the core of the complaint. While I appreciate the ICO does not provide compensation or other remedies, this does mean we will now consider this complaint. I do not consider there is anything separable for us to investigate as we could not achieve the outcomes Mrs X is seeking.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint for the following reasons:

• there is not enough evidence fault in the Council’s decision to reject Mrs X’s complaint about a court report;
• the law prevents us from investigating anything that is or has been the subject of court proceedings; and,
• another body better placed has already considered complaints about data protection issues.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman