Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint about the Council’s children’s services involvement with her family. This is because this matter is subject to ongoing court proceedings. We will not investigate how the Council has dealt with complainants about these matters because there is insufficient evidence of fault causing the complainant a significant injustice.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will call Ms X complains about the Council’s children’s services involvement with her and her daughter who I will call Z. Ms X also complains about restriction that the Council has placed on her contact and how the Council has dealt with her complaints about these matters.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• 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))

3. 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)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

Back to top

My assessment

6. I cannot investigate the substantive elements of Ms X’s complaint which relate to the Council’s children’s services involvement with her daughter, Z. This is because the Council has started court proceedings about these matters. This therefore places the matter outside of our jurisdiction.
7. The Council has agreed it would fully investigate and provide responses to Mrs X’s complaints once these proceedings have concluded. Once the proceedings have ended, and the Council has fully considered Ms X’s complaints, she can then approach the Ombudsman again and ask if it could or should investigate further.
8. I will not investigate how the Council has dealt with Ms X’s complaint correspondence. The Council imposed restrictions on Ms X’s correspondence in 2020, something the Ombudsman has previously concluded did not cause Ms X an injustice.
9. The Council has provided us with evidence to show the amount of recent correspondence it has received from Ms X. It wrote to Ms X to inform her that because of this contact it is restricting her contact further and will only allow her to submit one complaint a month. I see no fault in how the Council has communicated this to Ms X and do not consider that the restrictions have caused her a significant injustice. This is because its restrictions are simply a way of managing her contact, and it does not mean the Council will not supply the services it has a duty to provide.
10. I will not investigate Ms X claim that some of her complaints have not been responded to in time. It is not a good use of public funds to investigate complaints about the Council’s complaint handling in isolation when we are not investigating the substantive issues.

Back to top

Final decision

11. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because child protection matters are subject to court proceedings and there is insufficient evidence of fault causing an injustice in how the Council dealt with Ms X’s complaints about the matter.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman