Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s children’s services’ involvement at this time. This is because the courts are currently involved, and the scope of our investigation and any assessment of injustice caused to the family relies on the outcome of the court process. It is open to Mr X to bring his complaint back to us after those proceedings have finished.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about several issues relating to the Council’s children’s services’ involvement in his children’s case. His complaint includes that the Council:
1. Forcibly removed his children from his care, with police involvement, in April 2020 when his ex-partner alleged he had refused to return them to her care.
2. Has required his contact with his children to be in a contact centre since April and reduced their contact to two one-hour sessions weekly.
3. Has not provided its staff with autism awareness training, leading to it not properly meeting Mr X’s needs for adjustments in how it works.
4. Failed to act on his concerns about his children’s wellbeing while in their mother’s care. For example, it failed to intervene when the children’s mother allowed them to attend a sleepover, contrary to COVID-19 lockdown rules.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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

3. I considered the information Mr X provided when he complained to us.
4. I considered information the Council provided.
5. I considered Mr X’s comments on my draft decision.

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What I found

6. Mr X’s children’s mother applied to court for a child arrangement order in 2017. In 2018, the Court instead granted an interim care order and gave the Council responsibility for making decisions about the children’s care. The Council moved the children into their mother’s care. The court made a final care order in late 2018 and said Mr X should have six hours contact with his children weekly.
7. Mr X has made several complaints about the Council’s actions relating to his children. Mr X says significant progress had been made in the family’s situation, with the children’s care being shared between Mr X and his ex-partner, until a change of officer in early 2020. At this point, he says the Council changed its mind about an assurance it would seek to have the care order discharged.
8. In April 2020, the Council removed Mr X’s children from his care after their mother alleged he had not returned them to her care. This was during the COVID-19 lockdown and the Council has not allowed Mr X unsupervised contact with his children since then. Contact has instead taken place in a contact centre, which
   Mr X says is not suitable for his needs due to him having a diagnosis of autism.
9. Mr X has raised concerns about the children’s wellbeing, for example that their mother allowed them to attend a sleepover during lockdown, contrary to the COVID-19 rules.
10. The Council has more recently involved the courts again. Some of the issues
    Mr X raises will be considered as part of the current proceedings, and the court may make decisions that affect our ability to investigate parts of Mr X’s complaint. At this time, we also cannot properly assess what injustice may have been caused to Mr X and his children, because we cannot confidently say what would have happened but for any fault by the Council until the court process has finished.
11. Part of the complaint Mr X made to us related to the Council not sharing certain information in court that he believes it should have. This relates to what happened in court, so we will not be able to investigate this part of Mr X’s complaint in any event. He should raise the relevant issues as part of the court proceedings.
12. It is open to Mr X to bring his complaint back to us after the court proceedings have finished, at which point we will be better placed to decide on the scope of any investigation we can carry out and to assess any injustice caused to Mr X.

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Final decision

13. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint at this time. This is because the courts are considering Mr X’s children’s case currently, and the scope of our involvement relies on the outcome of the court process.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman