Complaints about child protection issues

This fact sheet is aimed primarily at parents, carers, children and young people who have experienced problems with a child protection issue and may be considering making a complaint to the Ombudsman.

I have a problem with a child protection matter. Can the Ombudsman help me?

• In many cases, yes. Where a child is thought to be at risk of significant harm, the council has a duty to investigate.
• If you are unhappy with the way the council has investigated concerns raised about child protection or failed to put in place measures to protect a child at risk of harm, we can look into how the council carried out its duties.
• There are some things we can’t deal with. We can’t look at anything that has been dealt with in court. So if the council has taken court proceedings we can’t look at any evidence or reports given to the court or review the court’s decision.
• If you want to change a decision a court has made you will need to seek legal advice. But we may be able to look at any steps the council took before starting court proceedings and at services provided after the court case has finished.

How do I complain?

• You should normally complain to the council first. We will not normally consider a complaint until the council has dealt with it under the children’s services complaints procedures.
• When you make a complaint to children’s services you should be told about what will happen to your complaint and how long this will take.
• There are three stages, and normally the time to complain to us is if you’re not happy with the outcome at the end of the third stage, where an independent Review Panel considers your complaint. You should normally complain to us within 12 months of getting the council’s final decision.
• In exceptional cases we will consider complaints even though they haven’t been all the way through the council’s special complaints procedures. We may for example do this where there are serious delays by councils in processing children’s social services complaints, if there is good reason to believe the council would not handle it effectively, or where the complaint is received directly from or on behalf of a child or young person.
• To complain to the Ombudsman phone our Advice Team on 0300 061 0614 (8.30am to 5.00pm, Mondays to Fridays). You will be able to discuss your complaint with one of our advisers. You can text us on 0762 480 4299.
• You can complete an online complaint form at www.lgo.org.uk/making-a-complaint, or you can email us at advice@lgo.org.uk.

If you’re a child or young person making a complaint to us we’ll give you extra help

We’ll help you make your complaint to the council, if you haven’t done that already, and keep in touch with you regularly while it goes through the complaints procedures. Once we’re in a position to consider your complaint ourselves we’ll give it priority, and we’ll use the means of contact with you that you prefer – including by email or text, if you like. We’ll also help you find an advocate to support you with your complaint if you want us to.  

If you can consider my complaint what will the Ombudsman look for?

• We consider whether the council has done something wrong in the way it dealt with the child protection investigation and whether this has caused you harm.
• We do not act as a body of appeal and can’t review the merits of decisions or professional judgements, where they have been reached properly. But we can consider how decisions made by the council are reached and whether they have been implemented properly. Some of the issues we can look at are:
  • delay in carrying out an investigation;
  • failure to follow government guidance, in particular guidance on the key steps in a child protection investigation and the timetable to be followed;
  • failure to keep proper records of information gained in an investigation;
  • failure to communicate with those involved or to co-operate with other agencies, such as the police, health or education;
  • preparing reports that are inadequate, based on inaccurate information or fail to take account of relevant information; and
  • failure to carry out proper assessments, put in place an adequate child protection plan where this is thought necessary, or implement measures set out in the plan.

What happens if the Ombudsman finds that the council was at fault?

• The Ombudsman cannot usually overturn a decision. But if we find that something has gone wrong in the way an investigation was dealt with, we may ask the council to carry out a review. If the council has failed to implement a decision we may recommend that it take the necessary action to protect a child.
• We may ask the council to pay you compensation. Whether we do this and the amount we suggest will depend on how you have been affected by what has gone wrong. We may also recommend that the council review its procedures so that the problems you experienced don’t happen to others.

Examples of some complaints we have considered

Our fact sheets give some general information about the most common type of complaints we receive but they cannot cover every situation. If you are not sure whether we can look into your complaint, please phone 0300 061 0614.

Date Updated: 19/01/10