Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s actions in its child protection involvement with her family. This is because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to consider her complaint whilst the matter is subject to ongoing court proceedings.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mrs X, complains about matters relating to the Council’s child protection involvement with her family. Mrs X says the Council has accused her of things she has not done; has removed her children from her care and has damaged her relationship with them. The case is subject to ongoing court proceedings.

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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)
3. We do not start 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))
4. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
5. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

8. Mrs X complained to the Council about its actions in relation to its child protection involvement with her family.
9. The Council told Mrs X it would not consider her complaint at present because the case is subject to ongoing court proceedings. It advised Mrs X to raise her concerns to her legal representative.
10. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint. This is because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to investigate this matter via its complaints procedure whilst there are ongoing court proceedings. The Council has made this decision in line with the relevant statutory guidance to local authority childrens services on the handling of complaints where there are ongoing proceedings. This is in order to prevent the proceedings, which must take precedence over a complaint investigation, from being prejudiced by a concurrent investigation.
11. Mrs X will be able to resubmit her complaint to the Council once the proceedings have concluded to see whether there are any residual matters it can consider which were not, and could not have been, raised in the proceedings. We cannot investigate complaints about matters that are being, or have been, considered in court proceedings. We have no discretion to do so.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because there is no sign of fault in the Council’s decision not to consider her complaint whilst the matter is subject to ongoing court proceedings.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman