Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s assessment of Mrs X’s family’s case and its subsequent court report. The law prevents us from considering the content of councils’ reports to court and their actions as part of proceedings.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complained the Council lied in a section 7 court report and in court. She says the Council has also refused to deal with her complaint about the matter. She says this led to a biased decision by the courts, losing contact with her children and having to leave the country with one of her children. She wants the Council to make service improvements and dismiss the staff responsible.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
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)
4. We have the power to start or end an investigation into a complaint about actions the law allows us to investigate. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we think the issues could reasonably be, or have been mentioned as part of the legal proceedings regarding a closely related matter. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by the complainant.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. Mrs X’s complaint is about the Council’s assessment of her children’s case and its subsequent section 7 report. This is a report ordered by the courts, to aid the court in deciding what is in the children’s best interests.
8. The law prevents us considering the content of councils’ reports to court, and their recommendations expressed in court. We cannot investigate the matters Mrs X asks us to, because they are all too intertwined with the court process. Her complaint includes specific matters such as lack of communication during the assessment process and the Council’s assertion they should not have made recordings. However, the consequence of all these matters is the content of the court report, which we cannot investigate. It is for the courts, not the Ombudsman, to make decisions about the children’s welfare. We cannot change the decision made by the court, and the correct route to challenge this would be through the courts.
9. All parts of the complaint are matters that have been, or should have been, raised in court. We will not consider Mrs X’s complaint.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because it is about court reports and other inextricably linked matters, all of which should have been raised as part of the court process.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman