Cambridgeshire County Council (20 003 498)

Statement Upheld Adoption 15-Mar-2021

Summary: Mr and Mrs B have an adopted child. They complained about how the Council dealt with the placement of their adopted child’s birth mother in a mother and baby foster placement close to their home, and the issues arising from this. We find there was fault by the Council causing injustice for which an apology and appropriate financial remedy has been offered. The Council has also implemented service improvements. We find there was some fault in complaint handling, and the Council agreed to our recommendation to take steps to review and act on lessons learned about the framing of complaints.

Birmingham City Council (20 012 610)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Adoption 05-Mar-2021

Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the support the Council gave his family. The events are more than 12 months old and there are no good reasons why the late complaint rule should not apply.

Norfolk County Council (20 003 342)

Statement Not upheld Adoption 04-Mar-2021

Summary: Mr X complained the Council wrongly ended an adoption allowance for his son Y and retrospectively changed the reasons for its decision to try and justify treating Y’s older sibling differently. There is no evidence of fault in the Council’s decision to cease Y’s adoption allowance in July 2019.