Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about advice the Council gave to the complainant’s former partner. This is because there is no evidence of fault on the Council’s part.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will refer to as Mr B, complains that the Council was at fault in giving advice to his former partner which resulted in her denying him contact with his daughter.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

Back to top

My assessment

5. Mr B’s daughter lives with his former partner. Mr B says his former partner denied him contact with his daughter for one week. He says this was as a result of the Council advising her she could deny contact if she felt her daughter to be at risk. Mr B believes the Council failed to consider the circumstances of the case before giving such advice, and that its actions were discriminatory on the grounds of sex. He argues that it has given his former partner permission to deny him contact on the grounds of her feelings, rather than facts.
6. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint because there is no evidence of fault on the Council’s part. As I understand it, there is no court order making the Council a party to the issue of contact. That being the case, contact is a matter for the parents. The advice Mr B alleges the Council gave is, in effect, a statement that the child’s mother is entitled to exercise her parental rights in the way she feels appropriate. That is a factual statement and does not give Mr B’s former partner any rights she did not already have. The fact that she chose to deny contact is a matter for her, not the Council.
7. If Mr B feels his former partner is acting unreasonably in the matter of contact his recourse is to take the matter to court. There is no role for the Ombudsman.

Back to top

Final decision

8. We will not investigate Mr B’s complaint because there is no evidence of fault on the Council’s part.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman