Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s actions at the time of and after an incident in 2022. There is not enough evidence that the Council’s failure to tell Mr X that his children would not be coming home led to his arrest. The remaining matters are ones we cannot investigate as they are not separable from court action.

The complaint

1. Mr X said the Council failed to tell him his children would not be coming home on a date in 2022, which led to him searching for them, and his consequent arrest.
2. He also said a social worker’s assessment of his family was based on hearsay and biased against him.
3. Mr X said the Council failed to tell the police its investigation was over, which led to the police making it a condition of bail for six months longer than necessary that he should not contact his children.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. The Ombudsman investigates 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 may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide:

• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

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

5. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
6. We cannot investigate a complaint if someone has started court action about the matter. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
7. 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)
8. 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, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

9. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
10. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

11. The complaint correspondence shows Mr X was arrested for several reasons, most of which were not connected to an incident when he confronted his wife. We could not therefore say that a failure by the Council to tell him where his children were led to his arrest.
12. We cannot investigate the remaining matters.
13. The content of the social worker’s assessment could reasonably be raised during imminent court proceedings as it directly bears on Mr X’s alleged character and actions. And the assessment concerns the suitability of the children’s parents to care for and have contact with them, which can only be decided by a court.
14. The correspondence shows the decision to extend Mr X’s bail conditions was made by a court. The reasons for that, whether involving fault by the Council or not, would have been given and could have been opposed in court.

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Final decision

15. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because:

• We could not say any fault by the Council caused the injustice claimed by leading to Mr X’s arrest; and
• We cannot investigate the remaining matters because they are not separable from matters that either were, could reasonably have been, or could reasonably now be raised in court.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman