Summary: Ms X complained the Council failed to follow its child protection procedure after her children were put on a Child Protection Plan. I have discontinued my investigation. This is because the Local Safeguarding Children Board has considered Ms X’s complaint and made recommendations to the Council. It is unlikely an investigation by the Ombudsman would lead to a different outcome.

The complaint

1. Ms X complained the Council failed to follow its child protection procedure after her children were put on a Child Protection Plan (CPP). Ms X said there were multiple failings in the Council’s actions including:
• the social worker did not visit her children for 77 days;
• the Council did not share the reports for the Initial Case Conference in a timely manner;
• the reports contained factual inaccuracies; and
• the Council failed to meet the outcomes in the CPP.
2. She is unhappy the Council placed her children on a child protection plan and feels that decision was unnecessary.

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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’. 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:

• the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement;
• it is unlikely we could add to any previous investigation by the Council; and
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I spoke to Mrs X and considered the complaint information she provided and the Local Safeguarding Children Board’s (LSCB) Final Review minutes.
5. Ms X and the Council both had the opportunity to comment on my draft decision.

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What I found

6. The LSCB deals with complaints about child protection conferences and processes, in partnership with the Council. The first stage of the complaint process is informal resolution and review by the Chair of the Conference. If the Chair is unable to resolve the complaint satisfactorily, they can either reconvene the Conference (stage two) or escalate the complaint to a Final Review Panel (stage three).
7. In December 2018, the Council held an Initial Child Protection Conference (ICPC) about Ms X’s two sons. The Council placed both children on CPP’s under the category of emotional abuse. The Council held a review conference in February 2019, and both children remained on a CPP. Ms X did not attend that meeting.
8. Ms X complained to the Council because she was unhappy about the conduct of the initial conference. The Chair of the ICPC met with Ms X to see if they could help resolve her complaints. They could not, so the complaint escalated to stage three of the Council’s complaint’s procedure.
9. A multi- agency panel met and considered Ms X’s 11 points of complaint. Ms X attended that meeting as did the Chair of the ICPC. The Panel made recommendations to the Council where it considered there was any fault. There were parts of the complaint the Panel did not consider as it fell outside the responsibility of the panel.

My findings

10. From reviewing the Panel’s report, I am confident it considered each of Ms X’s complaints individually. It made appropriate recommendations to the Council to prevent a reoccurrence when it identified any fault. There is no evidence to suggest the faults caused Ms X a significant injustice.
11. Further investigation by the Ombudsman is unlikely to result in a different outcome to the recommendations made by the Council.
12. In addition, the Ombudsman cannot achieve the remedy Ms X wants; this is for the Council to remove her children from the child protection plan under the category of emotional abuse.

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Final decision

13. Ms X complained about how the Council implemented its child protection procedure. I have discontinued my investigation as it is unlikely that an investigation by the Ombudsman would result in a different outcome.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman