Suffolk County Council (21 008 028)

Category : Children's care services > Adoption

Decision : Upheld

Decision date : 23 May 2022

The Ombudsman's final decision:

Summary: Mrs X complained about the Council’s actions in relation to her and her husband’s adoption case and how the Council responded to her complaint. The Council was at fault because it did not investigate Mrs X’s complaint under the children’s statutory complaints procedure. The Council has agreed it will investigate Mrs X’s complaint at stage two under the children’s statutory complaints procedure. It will also apologise to Mrs X for its failure to investigate her complaint under this procedure and the injustice it caused her.

The complaint

  1. Mrs X complained about the Council’s actions in relation to her and her husband’s adoption case. She said:
    • there were errors in how the Council managed the linking, matching and introduction phases of the adoption process; and
    • the Council’s report contained false and misleading information about her and her family.

Mrs X also complained the Council did not carry out a proper investigation into her complaint. Mrs X said this has caused her and her family significant distress. She wants the Council to apologise to her and carry out a further investigation of her complaint.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

  1. 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)
  2. 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)
  3. 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

  1. I spoke with Mrs X and considered the information she provided.
  2. I considered the information provided by the Council.
  3. Mrs X and the Council had the opportunity to comment on the draft version of this decision. I considered their comments before making a final decision.

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What I found

Children’s statutory complaints process

  1. 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.
  2. The guidance says adoption-related functions may be subject of a statutory complaint. This includes councils’ duties in respect of a proposed placement of a child with prospective adopters, placement and reviews. (Getting the Best from Complaints section 2.3)
  3. The first stage of the procedure is local resolution. Councils have up to 20 working days to respond. 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.
  4. 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

  1. Between November 2019 and January 2021, the Council supported Mrs X and her husband with their request to adopt a child. In January 2021, Mrs X and her husband withdrew from the adoption process. In March 2021, Mrs X and her husband attended a disruption meeting to discuss the breakdown of the adoption placement. Following this, the Council provided Mrs X with a copy of the report in relation to the disruption meeting.
  2. In June 2021, Mrs X complained to the Council in relation to the adoption process she and her husband had experienced with the Council over the past year. In her complaint, Mrs X highlighted issues she had experienced with professionals who had supported her and her family during the linking, matching and introduction phases of the process. She said:
    • they had communicated inadequately with her;
    • they had made false allegations about her and her family;
    • they gave her inaccurate information about the adoptive child; and
    • they were not properly prepared for specific meetings.
  3. Mrs X said these issues had influenced her and her husband to withdraw from the adoption process.
  4. In addition, Mrs X said the disruption meeting report contained inaccurate and misleading information about her and her family.
  5. The Council responded to Mrs X’s complaint under its corporate complaints procedure. Mrs X was not happy with the Council’s response. She asked the Council to investigate her complaint further. The Council informed Mrs X it would not investigate her complaint further as it had already sent a her a full response based on all of the information she had given to the Council. Mrs X remained unhappy and complained to us.

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Findings

  1. The Council considered Mrs X’s complaint under its corporate complaints procedure. As Mrs X’s complaint is related to the Council’s adoption-related functions, we would have expected the Council to investigate it under the children’s statutory complaints procedure which would have been in line with guidance. The Council was at fault.
  2. In addition, Mrs X requested the Council conduct a further investigation into her complaint and it refused to do this. The Council refusing to carry out a further investigation would have caused additional and unnecessary stress to Mrs X.

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Agreed actions

  1. Within one month of the final decision, the Council has agreed it will:
    • apologise to Mrs X for the injustice it caused her when it failed to investigate her complaint further and under the children’s statutory complaints procedure.
    • remind officers that adoption-related functions may be subject of a statutory complaint.
  2. Within 13 weeks of the final decision, the Council has agreed it will complete a stage two investigation under the children’s statutory complaints procedure.

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Final decision

  1. I have now completed my investigation. The Council was at fault which caused Mrs X injustice. It has agreed to remedy the injustice it caused to Mrs X.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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