Kent County Council (24 016 939)
Category : Children's care services > Child protection
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 05 Feb 2025
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council dealt with child protection matters concerning Mr X’s grandchildren. This is because much of the complaint concerns what happened in court and other matters are late.
The complaint
- Mr X complains about how the Council dealt with matters after his grandchildren were taken into care. Mr X says the children did not receive the help they need and that he has been lied about damaging his reputation.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- 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)
- We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, 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
- Mr X’s grandchildren were taken into care and their future care and contact arrangements have since been decided by the courts.
- I cannot investigate most of the issues raised by Mr X because they are about what happened during proceedings in court and the law prevents us from investigating complaints about court action or what happened in court.
- Mr X also raises concerns about what happened when the children first came into care, prior to court proceedings. I will not investigate this element of his complaint because these events happened more than 12 months ago, and I see no reason why a complaint could not have been made to the Ombudsman before now.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint it concerns what happened in court or matters are late.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman