Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council’s decisions regarding her child who is in care and its communications with her. We cannot achieve what Ms X wants and the courts have recently considered the case.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains the Council is looking after her child, who is on a care order, and separated from her family. Ms X complains the Council is moving her child, cutting contact, and refusing to work with the family. She says the Council breaks the law, lies, and makes things up. Ms X says the Council has harmed her health and damaged her relationship with her child. She says she has suffered financial loss. Ms X says the Council should answer to the courts and return her child.
2. Ms X complains the Council has not handled information correctly, not replied to her complaints and ignored a family rights group. She says the Council should investigate and handle information properly.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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:

• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

4. We cannot investigate a complaint if someone has started court action about the matter. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
5. We normally expect someone to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner if they have a complaint about data protection. However, we may decide to investigate if we think there are good reasons. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered Ms X’s information and comments. I have considered our September 2020 decision on Ms X’s complaint about contact arrangements. I have considered a court order dated May 2021.

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My assessment

7. I will not investigate Ms X’s complaint for the following reasons:
8. We cannot achieve what Ms X wants which is the return of her child to her and/or a change in the contact arrangements. There is no reason to investigate when the courts have recently made decisions which involve considering the welfare of the child.
9. Ms X has used her legal remedy against the Council by going to court. This means the matters and period included in the court applications are outside the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction and cannot be investigated (see paragraph 4 above). At the end of last year the family court refused Ms X’s application for unsupervised contact or an increase in contact. The court also imposed a restriction on Ms X applying again without permission until September 2021. It was considered she was raising the same issues. The family court has recently refused Ms X’s application for permission to apply to revoke the care order.
10. Where we are not investigating the substantive issues we will not normally investigate complaint handling. Ms X’s recent complaint to the Council says it has failed to give a proper response to her complaints since November 2018. Our last decision, in September 2020, considered the handling of contact arrangements following a court order in 2019. We found no fault by the Council. There is no reason for us to look again at the earlier period.
11. It is reasonable for Ms X to go to the Information Commissioner if she is concerned about how the Council handles information or if she believes it is not complying with data protection rules (see paragraph 5).

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Final decision

12. The Ombudsman will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council’s decisions regarding her child who is in care and its communications with her. We cannot achieve what Ms X wants and the courts have recently considered the case.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman