Summary: Mrs X complains that the Council failed to properly provide support for her son and the wider family. She says this caused her distress and health problems, and meant she had to pay for legal representation at a child protection conference. The Ombudsman does not find fault with the Council.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I refer to here as Mrs X, complains that the Council failed to properly provide support for her son and the wider family to address the fact that he was at risk of becoming involved with gangs and had mental health problems.
2. Mrs X says the Council failed to provide services from 2016 onwards which led to distress, because of the family breakdown, and health problems which she relates to the Council’s failures to support her. She also says the Council’s failures meant she lost wages, because she was signed off sick for so long, and meant she paid for a lawyer to represent her at the child protection conference.

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What I have investigated

3. Mrs X complains that the Council has failed to provide support from 2016 onwards. Mrs X complained to the Council about this in February 2017, August 2018 and April 2019.
4. Mrs X complained to the Ombudsman in June 2019. For this reason, I have investigated the part of Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s actions from June 2018 onwards.
5. In the final section of this decision statement I have explained my reasons for not investigating from 2016 onwards.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

6. 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)
7. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
8. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

9. I considered the information and documents provided by Mrs X and the Council. I spoke to Mrs X about her complaint. Mrs X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on an earlier draft of this statement. I considered all comments before I reached a final decision.
10. I have considered the relevant statutory guidance, set out below.
11. Mrs X’s son, B (now an adult), has not given his consent for the Council or the Ombudsman to disclose details about him to Mrs X. For this reason, I am not able to refer to certain evidence I have seen which supports my findings.

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What I found

What should have happened

Early Help

12. The government publishes guidance on safeguarding children and promoting children’s welfare, ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’ (regularly updated). This outlines the specific duties of different agencies working with children and families.
13. This guidance says Early Help means providing support as soon as a problem emerges. This relies on organisations and agencies working together to:
• identify children and families who would benefit from Early Help;
• undertake an assessment of the need for Early Help; and,
• Provide targeted Early Help services to address the assessed needs of a child and their family which focuses on activity to improve the outcomes for the child.
14. The guidance says local areas should have a comprehensive range of effective, evidence-based services in place to address assessed needs early. This will typically include family and parenting programmes, help with mental health, and help with problems relating to domestic abuse or substance misuse by an adult or child.
15. The guidance says where a child’s needs are relatively low, Early Help services may be able to take swift action. If a child’s needs are more complex, this will be met by Child in Need procedures. If there are child protection concerns, the local authority must make safeguarding enquiries under section 47 of the Children Act 1989.

What happened

16. Mrs X has two children, B (now an adult) and D. B has mental health issues.
17. In April 2018, the Council received a referral for Early Help for B. The Council did an assessment. B did not engage with this assessment. However, Mrs X took part.
18. The outcome of this assessment was that B would be referred to Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and the family would be offered support.
19. The referral form, completed with Mrs X, says that Early Help is a voluntary process and the child or family can withdraw consent at any time. B did not give his consent to be involved with Early Help services.
20. In June, Early Help involvement ended because B was not engaging with the service.
21. In July, Mrs X met with the Council’s Children Services manager and the Customer Services manager to discuss her concerns about B. She said she felt unsupported and vulnerable due to B’s escalating behaviours. She said services told her they cannot help because B did not engage with them. She felt that wider family support should be offered. Mrs X said she needed support and advice on how to manage B’s behaviour.
22. At this meeting, the Council agreed to speak to the Early Help team to see what support could be offered, to look at parenting classes for managing challenging behaviours, and explore what services were available. It also agreed to write to Mrs X to tell her the outcome.
23. In August, the Council sent Mrs X this outcome letter. It said it was difficult for Early Help to support B because he did not engage with them. Because of this, Early Help had ceased their involvement with B.
24. The Council said it had spoken to the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) team who said B did not meet the threshold for social care intervention. The Council’s view was that B could be supported through Early Help, but to be successful B would have to engage with it. It said Early Help could offer some support to the family.
25. The Council gave Mrs X advice from Early Help on organisations that could support and help her. It also suggested two parenting classes that Early Help said could benefit Mrs X. It asked Mrs X to tell the Council if she wanted to explore this.
26. The Council treated this as a stage one response to Mrs X’s complaint. It said if Mrs X remained dissatisfied, she could request further investigation of her complaint.
27. In March 2019, the Council assessed B and his younger brother, D. The assessment for D focussed on whether there were any unmet needs. The Council found D had no additional needs, had good family support, and that appropriate agencies were involved.
28. In April, Mrs X complained to the Council about lack of care and support for B and the family, dating back to 2016.
29. The Council sent Mrs X a consent form in order for her to complain on behalf of B.
30. In May, Mrs X told the Council she was complaining for herself, not on behalf of B. She said she wanted to “pick up where we left off” in 2018. She said she wanted a final response from the Council so she could complain to the Ombudsman.
31. The Council said it would consider Mrs X’s complaint at stage two of its procedure, rather than stage one, in recognition of her request for a final response.
32. At the end of May, the Council sent Mrs X its stage two response. It said it was limited in what it could tell her because B had not given consent to share information with her.
33. The Council said B’s social worker had made a referral to adult services because B was nearly 18 years old. It discussed the transition between children’s social care and adult social care.
34. The Council said it had provided social care support from 2016 to 2017, and Early Help support from April to June 2018. It also said more support had been provided from social care more recently.
35. Mrs X then complained to the Ombudsman.

Analysis

Failure to provide support

36. Mrs X complains that the Council failed to properly provide support for B and the wider family to address the fact that he was at risk of becoming involved with gangs and had mental health problems.
37. As I have said in paragraph four, I have investigated the part of Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s actions from June 2018 onwards. I have given my reasons for not investigating further back than that in paragraphs 51 to 53.
38. In June 2018, the Council ended Early Help with the family because B had not engaged with the service. I do not find the Council at fault for this. Early Help is a voluntary process and the child or young person can withdraw at any time. In this case, B had not engaged from the start of the process in April 2018.
39. The Council then met with Mrs X a month later to discuss her complaint and support needs. A month after this, the Council sent her a letter which signposted her to an organisation for support and discussed parenting classes for her.
40. The Council completed all the actions it agreed in the meeting with Mrs X in July 2018.
41. Since then, social care has become involved with B again. I am not able to disclose the work that the Council has done with B because of consent issues (see paragraph 11). However, I can say that the Council has provided appropriate support for B.
42. Given the support that the Council has offered to Mrs X, I do not find the Council at fault. The Council has done what it should have done in line with the guidance (referred to in paragraphs 12 to 15).
43. Further to this, the Council assessed Mrs X’s younger son, D, in March 2019. It found that D had no additional needs, appropriate agencies were involved, and he had good family support. For this reason, there would have been no reason for the Council to offer any additional support or intervention for D.
44. For this reason, I find that the Council has appropriately considered D’s needs as well as the wider family’s needs, in line with the guidance.

Help did not materialise

45. Mrs X complains that the Council said in a meeting that it would try to help even though she did not meet the relevant criteria. She says no help materialised.
46. The Council says this was the meeting of July 2018.
47. I have seen the minutes of that meeting which show the concerns Mrs X raised and the actions the Council agreed to take. The Council agreed to speak with the Early Help team to see what support could be offered. It also agreed to explore options and consider parenting classes to support Mrs X in managing B’s challenging behaviours.
48. The Council’s letter to Mrs X in August 2018 shows that it completed these agreed actions. It signposted Mrs X to organisations that could help provide the support she needed. It was then up to Mrs X to access that support.
49. It is for these reasons that I do not agree with Mrs X that help did not materialise. So, I do not find fault with the Council.

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Final decision

50. I have completed my decision. I do not uphold Mrs X’s complaint because I have found no evidence of fault.

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Parts of the complaint that I did not investigate

Support from 2016 to 2018

51. The Ombudsman cannot investigate complaints that are more than 12 months after the complainant first had knowledge of the problem, unless there are good reasons to do so.
52. In this case, Mrs X did not ask the Council to escalate her stage one complaints of February 2017 and August 2018. Mrs X says this was because she was ill and was not able to.
53. Overall, I consider that reasonable opportunities existed for Mrs X to have pursued this matter in a more timely fashion, and within the time limits laid down in law. As such, I have decided there are no good reasons to exercise the Ombudsman’s discretion to investigate this complaint beyond June 2018.

Payment for legal representation

54. Mrs X says the Council’s failures meant she paid for a lawyer to represent her at the child protection conference.
55. The child protection conference was in November 2016. As I have said above, I have not investigated that far back.

Child Protection procedures

56. Mrs X wants to know why the Council took safeguarding action in 2016. As I have said above, I have not investigated that far back.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman