Summary: Mr C complains he was not supported appropriately after he adopted his son. He says the Council failed to properly involve him in his son’s care, once his son left home, and did not investigate his complaints appropriately. Mr C could have come to us sooner about some of his complaints. There is evidence of fault in relation to a meeting arranged with Mr C that was never held.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Mr C, made complaints about how the Council had treated him and his son, Mr D.
2. Mr C said the Council did not take steps to provide appropriate accommodation in line with the court’s ruling in 2000 when Mr D was adopted and also when Mr D returned from his mother’s house to live with Mr C in September 2016.
3. Mr C complains the Council moved Mr D from his home, before he was 18, without telling Mr C where he was, which meant Mr C missed Mr D’s 18th birthday. He says there was no support provided to him to care for Mr D when he was recently discharged from hospital and that he had been excluded from Mr D’s care.
4. Mr C did not feel the Council had addressed his complaints appropriately.

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What I have investigated

5. I have investigated Mr C’s complaint about the Council removing Mr D from his home before he was 18. I have not investigated Mr C’s complaints that date from 2000 to 2016. I cannot investigate Mr C’s complaint about the Council failing to provide him with support to care for Mr D when he was recently discharged from hospital.. Similarly I cannot investigate the allegation that Mr C has been excluded from Mr D’s care. I explain why at the end of this statement.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

6. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
7. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We cannot question whether a council’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
8. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe it is unlikely further investigation will lead to a different outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
9. If we are satisfied with a council’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)
10. Under the information sharing agreement between the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman and the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted), we will share this decision with Ofsted.

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How I considered this complaint

11. I considered the information Mr C provided when he made the complaint and I asked the Council for information about the family. I sent Mr C and the Council a copy of my draft decision and took comments they made into account before issuing a decision.

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What I found

12. The Council says Mr C contacted it on 7 December 2017 advising that he asked Mr D to leave his home as he had been engaging in anti-social behaviour and not attending college. A home visit was scheduled for the following day but no one was present. The Council says it tried to arrange meetings through December but was unable to get agreement to a date.
13. Mr C says he turned up to a pre-arranged meeting on 4 January 2018 but no one came so he was left waiting at Council offices for no reason. I have seen a record of a meeting on 4 January between the Council and Mr D. Mr C has provided me with evidence that a meeting was set up with him on the same day at 5pm. He wanted to know what was happening with Mr D but the officer did not come and did not apologise. This was fault and I consider it led to distress for Mr C. The Council should apologise.
14. The remedy is appropriate because the Council has told me referrals had been made to targeted youth and mediation services on 17 August the previous year. This shows Mr C accepted his relationship with Mr D was at risk of breaking down. An assessment had also been carried out in September 2017, which would have given Mr C an opportunity to reflect on what actions he might have been able to take to stop the relationship completely breaking down. Because there had been issues identified with their relationship for, by January 2018, some considerable time, I have no grounds to conclude the January meeting could have resolved this. I do understand, though, how unhappy Mr C must have been that no one came to the meeting and that it was not then rescheduled.
15. On 10 January 2018, the Council says Mr C confiscated a set of keys to his home from Mr D. Because Mr D was homeless, the Council provided him with accommodation. There is no evidence of fault in the Council doing this. I have a record of a telephone call showing the Council informed Mr C about this on 11 January. Although Mr C wanted Mr D’s address, the Council’s view was that Mr D had to consent to this. There is no evidence of fault. I can understand Mr C is unhappy that he missed Mr D’s birthday but I have no evidence that this was due to Council fault.
16. Mr C says the Council put pressure on Mr D not to tell him his address. The Council could not stop Mr D giving Mr C the address if he wished to do so. Mr D could also have chosen to return to Mr C’s address. There is no evidence the Council acted with fault.
17. The Council’s apology should also acknowledge it failed to consider this in its handling of his complaint. The Council has already told me that its response to Mr C’s complaints was delayed and it is asked to apologise to him for this. Further investigation will not lead to a different outcome so I will not investigate the Council’s complaints handling further.

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Final decision

18. Fault leading to injustice and a remedy has been agreed.

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Agreed action

19. For the Council to apologise to Mr C in order to acknowledge his distress that a pre-arranged meeting did not take place and to acknowledge the delay in its response to his complaint. The Council should do this within two months of the date of this decision.

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Parts of the complaint that I did not investigate

20. I have not investigated Mr C’s complaints from his adoption of Mr D in 2000 to Mr D returning from his mother’s care to live with Mr C in 2016. These events happened too long ago to enable me to investigate robustly. I also see no reason for Mr C not to have come to us sooner.
21. I cannot investigate Mr C’s complaint about the Council failing to provide him with support to care for Mr D when he was recently discharged from hospital as I have no evidence Mr D wanted him to provide such care. Similarly, I cannot investigate the allegation that Mr C has been excluded from Mr D’s care given Mr D has not complained or given signed consent to allow Mr C to complain on his behalf now he is an adult.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman