Wigan mum's social worker complaint fails

The Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) has said it cannot investigate claims about a children’s services worker, including complaints that she was “not child-centred”.

The complainant, named only as Miss X, contacted the ombudsman after custody wranglings between her and her children’s father.

A report published following her complaint says: “The father of Miss X’s children applied to court for it to decide how the children should be cared for.

“The court ordered the council to provide a report to it on the children’s care arrangements and whether they were at risk of significant harm unless the council made a care order. This is a section 37 report.

“Miss X complained to the council.

“She said: ‘The social worker did not carry out the report assessment properly, resulting in an unbalanced report; the social worker is not child-centred and had not stated the medical and other needs properly; the report is an unfair reflection of her and the report was signed before the social worker assessed the child.”

Miss X also complained about poor communication from the social worker and a lack of transparency about what was happening.

The council replied in March 2019 and said it could not investigate her complaint while the court proceedings continued.

It said Miss X could ask the court to change the report’s author.

After investigation, the LGO decided that it would not take Miss X’s complaint further because it cannot comment on current court proceedings.

Miss X has been advised to contact the Health and Care Professions Council if she wishes to lodge a further complaint, who will be “better placed” to consider issues about the professionalism of the social worker.