South Tyneside Metropolitan Borough Council (23 009 289)
Category : Children's care services > Child protection
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 17 Oct 2023
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s response to a child protection referral and preventing Mr X’s contact with his child. Mr X has a right to go to court to seek contact it would be reasonable to use.
The complaint
- Mr X said the Council failed to investigate a malicious report by the mother of his child and prohibited his contact with the child.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Then complaint correspondence, provided by the Council at our request, shows Mr X’s child made disclosures to social workers and school staff. The correspondence states the child said they were worried about returning to Mr X’s care. Mr X questions why the child said what was reported and says his ex-partner’s actions should be considered. But the nature of the disclosures was such that any authority with child protection responsibilities would have had to prevent contact. The complaint correspondence shows the Council has maintained its position about what the child disclosed.
- Only a court could mandate contact between the child and Mr X. It would consider what was disclosed, the Council’s assessment of the matter and evidence presented by Mr X. The matters in Mr X’s complaint are not separable from that. It would be reasonable for him to use his right to go to court to challenge the Council decision and seek the restoration of contact with his child.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the matters complained of are not separable from matters about which he has a right to go to court it would be reasonable to use.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman