West Northamptonshire Council (23 004 541)
Category : Children's care services > Other
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 12 Jul 2023
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s involvement in care proceedings involving his child. This is because the law prevents us from matters which have been discussed in court.
The complaint
- The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mr X, complained about the Council’s involvement with his family. Mr X is concerned social workers have produced and presented misleading information as part of care proceedings involving his child. Mr X is also concerned about the amount of contact with his 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.
- 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)
- 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
- We will not start an investigation into Mr X’s complaint. The Ombudsman cannot consider matters which are linked to ongoing court proceedings or which could reasonably be raised in court. We cannot consider complaints about the preparation, collation, and analysis of evidence for court proceedings. This includes reports written by social workers or the evidence given in court. Such matters are outside our jurisdiction with no discretion to consider them. Mr X needs to raise his concerns with the Court, either personally, or through his solicitor. This includes any concerns Mr X has about the level of contact with his child.
Final decision
- We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint because the law prevents us from considering matters discussed in court.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman