London Borough of Barnet (24 008 497)
Category : Children's care services > Child protection
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 12 Feb 2025
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about child protection action by the Council. There is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to warrant our further involvement.
The complaint
- Miss X said the Council became involved with her family again due to malicious information and lies.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- We investigate 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 continue an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
- We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word fault to refer to these. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), 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
- The record of the initial child protection conference (ICPC) that made Miss X’s children subject to child protection plans shows a range of professionals from different organisations had multiple concerns about issues affecting Miss X’s children. While Miss X takes the view these concerns were based on malicious information and lies, the concerns were such that the Council could decide child protection action was needed. There is thus insufficient evidence of fault by the Council to warrant an investigation by us.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to warrant this.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman