Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s involvement with Ms X’s children. The law prevents us from investigating anything that has or is the subject of court proceedings. The Council is currently considering Ms X’s other complaints, so it is too soon for her to bring these issues to us to investigate.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains about the Council’s involvement with her family. She says it has included inaccurate information in reports to the court and not given her the chance to correct or comment on this information beforehand. Ms X also complains about the content of Child Protection Conference notes the Council has written. She says these also contain inaccurate information or omissions of key information. She believes the Council has not properly considered her comments or evidence. She wants us to independently review the Council’s handling of her case.

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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 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))
5. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint unless we are satisfied the organisation knows about the complaint and has had an opportunity to investigate and reply. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to notify the organisation of the complaint and give it an opportunity to investigate and reply. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(5), section 34(B)6)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

8. Mss X has told us the Council has produced reports for private legal proceedings involving her children. She also says the Court has ordered the Council to produce a report under section 37 of the Children Act 1989. Because section 37 reports form part of court proceedings, we have no jurisdiction to investigate their preparation or content. Ms X would need to raise any concerns she has about the content or accuracy of these reports with the court, either directly or through her legal advisor. The legal bar that prevents us from investigating these issues is permanent which means we cannot investigate even when legal proceedings have ended.
9. The Council has told us it is in the process of considering Ms X’s complaints about its handling of child protection matters involving her children. Because of this, it is too soon for Ms X to ask us to consider her complaints about the same issues. Ms X can return to us if she remains dissatisfied once the Council’s complaints process has been completed.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because the law prevents us from considering matters subject to court proceedings. It is too soon for us to consider Ms X’s other complaints.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman