Summary: We cannot investigate Miss X’s complaint the Council lied in a court report. We have no jurisdiction to investigate the contents of court reports or what happened in court.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained to the Council in 2021. She said the allocated Social Worker had not addressed concerns she had raised about her child’s, Y’s supervised contact with their father. She said her ex-partner was abusive and contact was upsetting Y.
2. Miss X complained to the Ombudsman in 2023 about the content of a report the Council wrote as part of private court proceedings. She said the Social Worker had encouraged her to allow contact between Y and her ex-partner. She said the Social Worker had no understanding about domestic abuse. Miss X wants the Council to apologise and to provide evidence to support its court report.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. 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)
5. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a care provider has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)

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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. We cannot investigate matters the court has considered. Therefore, we have no jurisdiction to investigate Miss X’s complaint about the report the Council provided to the Court or what happened in court. If Miss X disagreed with the content of the report, then it was appropriate for her to raise this as part of court proceedings.
9. We will also not investigate Miss X’s complaint about the Social Worker’s conduct. The Council responded to Miss X’s complaint in 2021. Therefore, this complaint is late. It was reasonable for Miss X to complain to us sooner if she was unhappy with the Council’s response.

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Final decision

10. We cannot investigate Miss X’s complaint because that is because we have no jurisdiction to consider court reports.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman