Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council contacting external agencies without her consent because we could not add to the Council’s own investigation. We cannot investigate complaints about reports written for court action, nor complaints about schools.

The complaint

1. Ms X complained the Council:
• contacted other agencies without her consent and shared inaccurate information;
• wrote a report for the court that was full of inaccuracies;
• failed to record her reports of domestic abuse; and
• confirmed her child’s school had addressed her complaint when it had clearly not done so.
2. She said the Council’s actions meant she and her child were put at risk and she was caused emotional distress.

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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 most complaints about what happens in schools. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5, paragraph 5(2), as amended)
6. 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 we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered information provided by Ms X and the Council.
8. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

Contacting other agencies without consent

9. Ms X contacted the Council to report that Agency A had provided misleading information to the Council about her case. In its complaint response, the Council said it had recorded Ms X consent to it speaking to her child’s school and she was told the child’s father, Mr Y, would be contacted. It did not consider speaking to Mr Y would present a risk to Ms X or their child because the contact was to share information already before the court, which Mr Y was aware of.
10. The Council acknowledged it had not recorded Ms X’s consent to speak to Agency A or Agency B, an organisation supporting Ms X’s son. Although it said it was reasonable to contact then in the circumstances, the Council apologised for not seeking her express consent and it has made service improvements to prevent recurrence of this issue.
11. We will not investigate this complaint further. It is unlikely we could add to the Council’s investigation of this part of the complaint.

Recording domestic abuse and court report

12. In its complaint response, the Council confirmed it had recorded Ms X’s reports of domestic abuse but accepted that parts of the report it prepared (based on that information) could be misconstrued.
13. We cannot investigate complaints about court action and that includes complaints about reports written for court proceedings. Therefore, we cannot consider Ms X’s complaint about the inaccuracies in the Council’s report.

Complaint about the child’s school

14. Ms X complained about the Council’s comments about her child’s school. The Council said the school’s chair of governor’s had responded to her complaint, so it had followed its complaints process. However, Ms X was unhappy with the school’s response and has complained to the Department for Education and OFSTED.
15. We cannot investigate complaints about what happens in schools or about a school’s complaints handling process.

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Final decision

16. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because we could not add to the Council’s investigation. We cannot investigate complaints about court action or about schools.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman