APPENDIX B: SUMMARIES OF SELECTED CASES 2012-19. Decision-making authority in cases concerning access to children placed in care On the basis of a specific case concerning parents’ and grandparents’ access to a girl placed in care, the Ombudsman opened an own-initiative case. The own-initiative case concerned the question of who – local authority officials or the local authority’s committee for children and young people – has the authority pursuant to the Social Services Act to make decisions in the various types of cases involving access to children placed in care. The Ombudsman stated that the conclusive factor when determining whether it is local authority officials or the committee for children and young people that has the authority to make decisions pursuant to section 71(1)-(3) of the Social Services Act is not the category of persons who the decision concerns but how intrusive the decision is. For instance, decisions to limit access to less than once a month and decisions for access to be supervised must be made by the committee for children and young people, regardless of whether the decision is aimed at the child’s parents or other persons in the child’s network. Less intrusive decisions on access must be made by local authority officials. 2012-25. Chairman of Regional Council’s call for internal cooperation in newspaper article did not infringe on employees’ freedom of expression A trades union complained to the Ombudsman about a Regional Council Chairman’s remarks to a local newspaper. The Chairman’s remarks appeared in the same article as a statement from a hospital staff representative concerning the influence of staff quotas on the hospital’s placement in the national mortality statistics. The Regional Council Chairman was quoted as saying: ‘Staff and politicians have a joint responsibility here, and I strongly urge that we cooperate on reducing those mortality figures instead of discussing them in the press’. In the Ombudsman’s estimation, a full Ombudsman investigation was not likely to result in any criticism of the Regional Council Chairman’s remarks. 123