Summary: Ms X complained about the Council’s actions when she moved from children’s to adult’s social care. The Council failed to investigate Ms X’s complaint under the children’s statutory complaints procedure. This fault has caused avoidable frustration to Ms X. In recognition of this, the Council has agreed to apologise, pay Ms X £200 and investigate her complaint using the children’s statutory process. It has also agreed to issue staff reminders to prevent recurrence of the fault in future.

The complaint

1. Ms X complained the Council:
1. Failed to properly plan her care as she moved between children’s and adult’s social services;
2. Failed to ensure she had suitable accommodation to move into when she turned eighteen; and
3. Failed to put in place therapy and support that she needed after she was hospitalised due to her mental health and moved back into the community.
2. Ms X complained that due to the Council’s actions she has been avoidably caused distress, uncertainty about where she will live, and her mental health has deteriorated.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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 significant injustice, or that could cause injustice to others in the future we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
4. If we are satisfied with an organisation’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)
5. Under our information sharing agreement, we will share this decision with the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted).

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered the information provided by Ms X and the Council.
7. I considered the relevant law and guidance as set out below.
8. I considered all comments made by Ms X and the Council on a draft decision before making a final decision.

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What I found

Law and guidance

Children in care and transition to adulthood planning

9. The Children Act 1989 places duties on councils to provide ongoing support for young people leaving care. These duties continue until they reach age 21. If the council is helping them with education and training, the duty continues until age 25 or to the end of the agreed training, which can take them beyond their 25th birthday.
10. Councils should appoint each care leaver with a personal adviser and provide a pathway plan. The personal adviser will act as a focal point to ensure the care leaver is provided with the right kind of support. Pathway plans should continue for all care leavers continuing in education or training. The plan should include details of the practical and financial support the council will provide.
11. The Care Act 2014 sets out the duties on councils when someone moves from children’s social care. The ‘Care and Support Statutory Guidance’, which accompanies the Care Act says that, when young people leave their care placement, the council must ensure their new home is suitable for their needs and linked to their wider plans and aspirations.

Children’s statutory complaint procedure

12. The Children Act 1989 sets out a three-stage procedure councils must follow when looking at complaints about certain children’s social care services. We call this the “children’s statutory complaints procedure”. The procedure covers matters including support of looked after children as they become adults (paragraphs 9 and 10).
13. The accompanying statutory guidance, ‘Getting the Best from Complaints’, sets out the process for considering complaints. We call this, “the Guidance”.
14. The first stage of the procedure is local resolution. If a complainant is not happy with a council’s stage one response, they can ask it to consider it at stage two. At stage two, councils appoint an investigator, and an independent person who oversees the investigation.
15. 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 purpose of the stage three panel includes:
• considering the adequacy of the stage two investigation;
• obtaining any further information or advice in order to resolve the complaint; and
• identifying injustice and recommending appropriate redress.

The children’s statutory procedure: what to do when other complaints procedures are involved

16. The Guidance says, where a complainant has other related complaints that do not fall within this statutory procedure, the council may wish to consider whether there are advantages in accepting these into a single investigation. It says councils are encouraged to offer a complete single response where possible, “for example where a child or young person has complaints relating to both a local authority’s housing service and its children’s services”.
17. If the council decides to incorporate other complaints into its statutory investigation, the Guidance says it should respond by meeting the shorter of whichever timescales apply and should ensure that this process is not confusing for the child or young person (the Guidance, section 7.8).

The role of the Ombudsman in statutory children’s complaints

18. The Ombudsman would normally expect a council and complainant to follow the full complaints procedure. The Guidance sets out the circumstances in which a complaint can be referred to the Ombudsman without completing all three stages. This can only happen when the stage two investigation is robust with all complaints upheld.

What happened

Background

19. Ms X is now an adult but she was in the care of the Council when she was a child. At the time of the events Ms X complained about, she was seventeen, about to turn eighteen in the coming months.

Key events

20. In February 2024 Ms X complained to the Council with the help of an advocate. She complained that:
• The Council had arranged no suitable accommodation for her ahead of her turning eighteen and she would be homeless;
• It had delayed in several processes for planning her accommodation and care;
• It offered her accommodation in an area that was unsafe for her due to relatives who lived there;
• Children’s services had failed to put in place the community mental health support she required when she was discharged from being in hospital; and
• She felt her views were not being listened to by the Council.
21. Ms X said she wanted the Council to make her a suitable offer of accommodation and make a support plan with her.
22. Her representative asked for the complaint to be considered under the children’s statutory complaints procedure.
23. The Council responded at the final stage of its complaints process in May 2024. It said it had not considered it under the children’s statutory complaints procedure, but under its corporate complaints procedure. It decided to do this because it said the complaint was about decisions taken by the adult social care service.
24. It upheld several of her complaints regarding the actions taken by adult social care, apologised and signposted Ms X to the Ombudsman if she was unhappy with the response.

My findings

25. The statutory children’s complaints procedure was set up to provide children, young people and those involved in their welfare with access to an independent, thorough and prompt response to their concerns. This independence is not available to complaints put through the corporate complaints procedure. Because of this, we expect people to complete the statutory complaints procedure before we will consider whether there were any flaws in how the Council investigated their concerns.
26. Ms X’s complaints concerned several actions taken by children’s services, in particular a lack of planning for where she would live once she turned eighteen. These are matters which fall under the statutory complaints procedure.
27. Where a person complains about a matter covered by the statutory procedure, the council must use that procedure to respond to the complaint. The Council failed to do this and used the corporate complaints procedure instead. This fault caused Ms X avoidable frustration and uncertainty at an already difficult time.
28. Ms X’s complaint also related to other matters delivered under other legislation, such as the Care Act 2014. Therefore when the Council received Ms X’s complaint it should have considered whether to include those issues in the statutory investigation, in line with the Guidance, as set out at paragraphs 16-18 of this decision statement, or whether to respond to those issues separately using the corporate complaints process.
29. I have recommended that the Council now carry out a statutory complaint investigation and for the reasons set out above, this means I have not investigated Ms X’s concerns in complaints 1a - c.

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Agreed action

30. Within one month of the date of the final decision, the Council has agreed to:
1. Apologise to Ms X and her representative for wrongly declining to investigate her complaint using the children’s statutory complaints procedure;
2. Pay Ms X £200 to reflect the frustration and uncertainty caused to her by this fault; and
3. Demonstrate that it has begun a stage one investigation into her complaints using the children’s statutory process and considered, in line with section 7.8 of the Guidance, whether it ought to incorporate her complaints which fall under different departments, into one single process to minimise confusion for her.
31. Within three months of the date of the final decision, the Council has agreed to:
1. Remind complaint handling staff that where a complaint involves children’s services and it meets the criteria in the statutory guidance, the Council must investigate using this process; and
2. Remind complaint handling staff of the provisions in section 7.8 of the statutory guidance, which allows for complaints involving different departments to be considered under one process to provide a simpler route for children and young people.
32. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Final decision

33. I have completed my investigation. I have found fault leading to injustice and recommended an apology, a financial remedy and service improvements.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman