Summary: The Council is at fault for delaying consideration of this complaint at stage three of the children’s statutory complaints procedure. The Council has agreed to consider the complaint at stage three and make a payment to remedy the time and trouble its delay has caused her.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will call Mrs X, complains that the Council provided her with inaccurate information when she went through the adoption process. Mrs X has asked for her complaint to be progressed to stage three of the statutory children’s complaints procedure but so far a panel has not been convened.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
3. Under our information sharing agreement, we will share the final decision with the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted).

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
6. The complainant has had the opportunity to comment on my draft decision.

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My assessment

The statutory complains procedure

7. The law sets out a three-stage procedure for councils to follow when looking at complaints about children’s social care services. The accompanying statutory guidance, Getting the Best from Complaints, explains councils’ responsibilities in more detail.
8. The first stage of the procedure is local resolution. Councils have up to 20 working days to respond. Discussions should take place between the Council and complainant to try and resolve the complaint as soon as possible. Complaints can be progressed straight to stage two, but only if both parties are in agreement.
9. If a complainant is not happy with a council’s stage one response, they can ask that it is considered at stage two. At this stage of the procedure, councils appoint an investigator and an independent person who is responsible for overseeing the investigation. Councils have up to 13 weeks to complete stage two of the process from the date of request.
10. If a complainant is unhappy with the outcome of the stage two investigation, they can ask for a stage three review by an independent panel. The Council must hold the panel within 30 days of the date of request, and then issue a final response within 20 days of the panel hearing.

What happened

11. Mrs X complained to the Council about inaccurate information she received when going through the adoption process. The Council considered Mrs X’s complaint under the statutory procedure and In September it issued a stage two response to Mrs X. Dissatisfied, Mrs X asked the Council to escalate the complaint to stage three.

What happened

12. The Council should have convened a stage three panel to consider Mrs X’s complain no later than 30 days after she requested her complaint to be escalated. It didn’t and this is fault. She has not received a final response to her complaint and has been caused frustration by the delay.

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Agreed action

13. The Council has agreed that within on month of the date of my final decision it will:
• Convene a stage three pane to consider Mrs X’s complaint. Once the process is complete it will write to Mrs X to inform her of the outcome.
• Offer to make a payment to Mrs X of £100 to remedy the time and trouble she has gone to pursuing the complaint and to reflect the significant delay in the Council dealing with this complaint.

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Final decision

14. We uphold this complaint with a finding of fault.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman