Summary: We will not investigate this complaint that the Council has failed to take proper account of the complainant’s concerns about his son’s welfare and has acted with bias in favour of his son’s mother. This is because the complaint concerns matters which have formed part of legal proceedings, and our intervention would not add anything to the response the Council has already made.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X, complains that the Council has failed to take proper account of his concerns about his son’s welfare and has acted with bias in favour of his son’s mother.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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))
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 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 we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), 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. Mr X says he has concerns about his son’s welfare, which he has brought to the Council’s attention. He complains that it has ignored his concerns and has acted with bias against him and in favour of his son’s mother.
8. Mr X complained to the Council about two matters. The first was that the Council produced assessment reports which are inaccurate and incomplete. He says these assessments were issued to his son’s mother in an unredacted form and he was unable to challenge them before she submitted them to the Court in the course of private legal proceedings.
9. We will not pursue this aspect of the complaint because the reports have formed part of legal proceedings regarding Mr X’s son. The fact that it was not the Council that provided them to the Court is not relevant.
10. The second aspect of Mr X’s complaint was that he was not informed at the same time as his son’s mother when his son’s social worker was replaced. The Council has accepted that this was the case and has apologised. Where a complaint has already been upheld, the Ombudsman will not normally intervene as we would be unlikely to add anything significant to the Council’s findings. That is the case here.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it concerns matters which have formed part of legal proceedings, and our intervention would not add anything to the response the Council has already made.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman