Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council’s opinion of her child’s father’s care of her child. The Council’s assessment has formed part of legal proceedings.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Ms X, says the Council’s children services team, failed to properly look into her concerns and produced an inaccurate report.

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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
3. We have the power to start or discontinue an investigation into a complaint within our jurisdiction. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we think the issues could reasonably be, or have been, raised within a court of law. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Ms X which included the complaint replies.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Ms X says she was concerned at her child’s father’s actions and ability to keep the child safe. She says she reported her concerns to the Council’s children services team. She also became involved in Court proceedings about the father’s contact with the child. As part of those proceedings the Court ordered the Council to provide it with its assessment of the child’s circumstances. Ms X says this assessment is not thorough enough, is inaccurate and has not taken her reports seriously enough.
7. Ms X says because of the Council’s report the Court decided to allow unsupervised contact. She is concerned about her child’s safety when they are with their father.
8. We cannot investigate the preparation or content of a report which a Court has used as it forms part of legal proceedings.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because we cannot investigate reports or assessments which have been used in Court proceedings.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman