Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the actions of the Council’s social workers in the course of their involvement with the care of the complainant’s daughter. This is because investigation would not result in the outcomes the complainant wants.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X, complains that the Council’s social workers were at fault in the course of their involvement with the care of 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 do not start an investigation if we decide 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 X’s daughter has been the subject of legal proceedings relating to her care, in the course of which the Council produced a report for the Court. Mr X says social workers failed to provide him with a copy, despite being instructed to do so by the Court, which disadvantaged him in the proceedings. The Council upheld his complaint about this matter.
6. Mr X says the social workers have subsequently provided false information to the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS), which may impact his employment. He further complains that they have tried to negatively affect his daughter’s education.
7. Mr X wants the social workers removed from his daughter’s case. He wants the Council to retract the information provided to the DBS. In relation to his daughter’s education, he wants it to ensure her school makes specific provision, support him in obtaining school transport for her or find her an alternative placement.
8. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we cannot achieve the outcomes he is seeking. It is for the Council to decide which of its officers are allocated to work with his daughter and we cannot express a view on whether specific social workers should be replaced.
9. Matters relating to the report used in court fall outside our jurisdiction. Such reports are the property of the court and by law we cannot consider anything relating to their production, content, distribution or impact on the proceedings. This is the case here, even though the Council has accepted that its officers were at fault. There is no discretion available to us on this point.
10. We will not intervene in the matter of Mr X’s DBS check. It is for the DBS to decide what weight it gives to the evidence it obtains, and Mr X has the opportunity to make representations to it. There is no role for the Ombudsman.
11. If Mr X is unhappy with the provision made by his daughter’s school, he must pursue this with the school directly and, if appropriate, through its complaint procedure. It is open to him to apply for school transport assistance or an alternative school place for his daughter in the normal way, and there are no grounds for the Ombudsman to consider these matters.

Back to top

Final decision

12. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because investigation would not result in the outcomes he is seeking.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman