Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council (25 013 374)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Other 24-Feb-2026

Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint that the Council failed to provide him with safeguarding information about his children. The Council explained the reasons for its decision-making and an investigation by the Ombudsman is unlikely to achieve anything further.

West Northamptonshire Council (25 013 621)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Child protection 24-Feb-2026

Summary: We cannot investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council’s actions before a child was removed from her care. The actions are too closely linked to Court proceedings.

North Yorkshire Council (25 015 489)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Other 24-Feb-2026

Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about a court ordered report produced for ongoing family court proceedings. This is because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to consider her complaint until the proceedings have concluded.

Cheshire East Council (25 014 583)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Adoption 24-Feb-2026

Summary: We cannot investigate Miss X’s complaint about the decision that her great nephew, Y, be placed for adoption with third parties. The law says we cannot investigate complaints about matters that have been considered in court proceedings. We have no discretion to do so.

London Borough of Croydon (25 014 295)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Other 24-Feb-2026

Summary: We will not investigate Mr Z’s complaint about children’s services’ involvement with his child. The law prevents us from investigating complaints about the start of court action or what happened in court, and any other matters could reasonably have been raised during the court proceedings.

London Borough of Croydon (24 022 732)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Child protection 23-Feb-2026

Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about a children services’ safeguarding assessment. We are unlikely to achieve significantly more than the Council’s response in its Children Act statutory complaints’ procedure.

Wiltshire Council (25 013 580)

Statement Upheld Other 23-Feb-2026

Summary: We have upheld Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s refusal to confirm its involvement with his child. The Council has now agreed to apologise to Mr X and write to him about its involvement with his child. This provides a proportionate remedy for the injustice caused and therefore investigation by us would not be proportionate.

Halton Borough Council (25 022 350)

Statement Upheld Other 23-Feb-2026

Summary: Ms X complained about the way the Council dealt with support for her and her children. The Council was at fault for delays in the children’s statutory complaint procedure. This caused Ms X frustration and uncertainty. The Council should apologise and make a payment to recognise the injustice caused.

London Borough of Lewisham (25 014 161)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Looked after children 23-Feb-2026

Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s historic complaint about events over 30 years ago when she was a looked after child. The law says we cannot investigate late complaints and there are no good grounds to exercise discretion to consider it because we could not carry out a full and fair investigation into these events now.

Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames (25 014 385)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Other 23-Feb-2026

Summary: We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s actions leading to the removal of his child from his care more than 25 years ago. This is because the complaint is late with no good reasons to investigate it now.