Summary: Ms C complains, for her father Mr B, the Council did not respond to child protection concerns raised about his daughter, D. Ms C and Mr B are concerned this left D at risk of harm. The Council was at fault for failing to follow policy and keep accurate records. This has resulted in uncertainty for Mr B and Ms C about the ability of the Council to safeguard D. The Council will take action to remedy this injustice.

The complaint

1. Ms C complains, for her father Mr B, the Council did not respond to child protection concerns raised about his daughter, D. Ms C and Mr B are concerned this left D at risk of harm.

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What I have investigated

2. I have investigated the actions of the Council from July 2018 onwards.
3. I have not investigated complaints raised about the Council’s actions before this date because these were part of legal proceedings and the complaint is late.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. 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)
5. 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)
6. We cannot investigate a complaint about the start of court action or what happened in court. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5A, paragraph 1/3, as amended)
7. 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)
8. 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

9. I considered:
• Mr B’s complaint and the information Ms C provided;
• documents supplied by the Council;
• relevant legislation and guidelines; and
• the Council’s policies and procedures.
10. Mr B, Ms C and the Council commented on a draft decision.

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What I found

Legislation and policy

Safeguarding: legislation

11. The Children Act 1989 and statutory guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children (‘Working Together’) sets out a council’s responsibilities to safeguard children.
12. If a council accepts a referral for a child, it must carry out a needs assessment. Every assessment should reflect the unique characteristics and needs of the individual child. (Working Together to Safeguard Children)
13. Where a child’s need is relatively low level, individual services and universal services may be able to take swift action. Where there are more complex needs, the Council may offer a service under section 17 (child in need) or section 47 (child protection) of the Children Act 1989.

Child arrangement orders: legislation

14. A child arrangement order relates to:
• whom a child is to live, spend time or otherwise have contact, and
• when a child is to live, spend time or otherwise have contact with any person. (Children and Families Act 2014, part 2, section 12)
15. If a child arrangements order has been broken without a reasonable excuse, you may apply to the family court:
• for a community-based order requiring a person to carry out unpaid work (this is known as an ‘enforcement order’); or
• to award financial compensation from one person to another. (Children Act 1989, part 2, section 11J)

Safeguarding: Council policy

16. The Council has a children’s services procedures manual. I have set out below some key points from the procedure relevant to this complaint:
17. The first child in need (CIN) meeting should be held within 15 working days of the Council completing a CIN assessment where the assessment has concluded that a package of support is required to meet the child's needs under Section 17 of the Children Act 1989.
18. At this meeting a multi-agency CIN plan should be developed and agreed with the family and other professionals.
19. The first review of a CIN plan should occur within six weeks of the first CIN meeting, subsequent reviews should occur at intervals not greater than eight weeks.
20. All children who are worked with as CIN will be visited with a minimum frequency of four-weekly.
21. When the child is no longer a CIN requiring intervention from Children's Social Care, the social worker will make a recommendation to the team manager that the case is closed.

Complaints: legislation

22. The Council’s Statutory Complaints procedure is for complaints about the decisions or apparent failings of children’s social services provision. (Statutory Complaints procedure. Getting the best from complaints: Social Care Complaints and Representations for Children, Young People and Others.)
23. Section 26(3) and section 24D of the Children Act, 1989 and section 3(1) of the Adoption and Children Act, 2002 require the responsible authority to consider representations including complaints made to it by:
• any child or young person (or a parent of his or someone who has parental responsibility for him) who is being looked after by the local authority or is not looked after by them but is in need;
• any local authority foster carer (including those caring for children placed through independent fostering agencies);
• children leaving care;
• Special Guardians;
• a child or young person (or parent of his) to whom a Special Guardian order is in force;
• any person who has applied for an assessment under section 14F(3) or (4);
• any child or young person who may be adopted, their parents and guardians;
• persons wishing to adopt a child;
• any other person whom arrangements for the provision of adoption services extend;
• adopted persons, their parents, natural parents and former guardians; and
• such other person as the local authority consider has sufficient interest in the child or young person’s welfare to warrant his representations being considered by them.
24. The Children Act, 1989 gives discretion to councils to decide in cases where eligibility is not automatic whether an individual has sufficient interest in the child’s welfare to justify his own complaint being considered by them. In reaching a decision, where possible the council may wish to check with the child or young person that he is happy with the person making a complaint.

Complaints: Council procedure

25. The Council has a two-stage corporate complaints procedure.
26. At stage one, the Council will respond to complaints within 10 working days.
27. At stage two, the Corporate Feedback Team will reply within 25 working days.

What happened

28. This investigation is about a safeguarding investigation and I can share limited information about the case.
29. Mr B has parental responsibility for D. D lives with her mother. There is a child arrangement order in place that states D should stay with Mr B once during the week and every other weekend.

Children’s services investigation

30. The Council received a referral for D in July 2018. The Council held a strategy meeting and decided to start a CIN assessment. D’s mother stopped Mr B having contact with her.
31. The Council completed the CIN assessment and plan in August 2018. The plan listed actions for the Council, other organisations and D’s parents. One of the Council’s actions was to visit D at school; there is no record of this happening.
32. The Council carried out one home visit in September and two in November 2018 to complete direct work with D.
33. In December 2018 the CIN plan was reviewed at a multi-agency meeting which Mr B and Ms C attended. The Council said D did not want to have contact with Mr B.
34. The Council visited D at home in December and January 2019.
35. The Council say the CIN plan was reviewed in a multi-agency meeting held in February 2019. Professionals and D’s mother agreed D was not a child in need and her case should be closed. Mr B did not agree, he wanted the case to remain open. The Council has not given the Ombudsman minutes of this meeting.
36. The Council met with Mr B and Ms C in February 2019 to discuss the case closure. Mr B told the Council D’s mother should allow him to have contact with her. The Council told him it was D’s choice not to see him. It advised Mr B to seek legal advice about the child arrangement order.
37. The Council’s records for the case are not complete. The Council refers to arranging to visit Mr B and to him cancelling in its records. However, the Council has not recorded the dates it arranged to meet Mr B or why he cancelled the visits.

Complaint procedure

38. Ms C complained to the Council in May 2019. She said the Council had not addressed her and Mr B’s safeguarding concerns for D, supported them to have contact with D or communicated with them effectively.
39. The Council took the complaint through the corporate complaints procedure because being a half-sister was not in the list of people who can raise a statutory complaint about services provided to a child.
40. The Council responded at stage one in June 2019. It told Ms C it had investigated all safeguarding concerns reported to the Council about D. The Council explained it could not give Ms C sensitive information about the case because she does not hold parental responsibility for D. The Council advised Ms C to speak to the people with parental responsibility for D and/or seek legal advice to secure contact with D.
41. The Council provided a stage two response in July 2019. The Council explained it could not share any personal information with her about D because D is a minor and she does not have parental responsibility. The Council said the actions taken by professionals working with her family had been appropriate to safeguard D.

Analysis

Children’s services investigation

42. The Council should have held the first CIN meeting within 15 working days of completing the CIN assessment. This did not happen. The Council completed the CIN assessment in August 2018 and the first meeting was not held until December 2018; this was fault.
43. The Council should have developed the CIN plan with D’s parents and the other professionals working with the family at the first CIN meeting. The Council wrote the plan itself prior to the first CIN meeting; this was fault.
44. The Council was unable to provide minutes for the CIN meeting held in February 2018; this is fault.
45. The Council closed the case before it had completed all the actions in the CIN plan. There is no record of the Council visiting D at school. Because of the acrimony between D’s parents, visiting D in a neutral location would have been particularly important; not doing so was fault.
46. The Council does not have any record of contacting Mr B to arrange to visit him. On the balance of probability, I believe the Council did try to visit Mr B but failing to keep complete records of the actions it took was fault.
47. The Council’s failure to follow procedure and to keep accurate records has resulted in uncertainty for Mr B and Ms C about the ability of the Council to safeguard D.

Complaint procedure

48. The Council did not consider whether Ms C had sufficient interest in D’s welfare to justify her complaint being considered using the statutory complaint procedure, as per paragraph 21. The Council fettered its discretion, and this is fault.
49. This fault is not considered to have caused Mr B or Ms C injustice because the Council suggested Ms C speak to the people with parental responsibility for D. If Ms C had asked Mr B to make a complaint and he had done so, the Council would have had a duty to consider his representations under section 26(3) and section 24D of the Children Act, 1989 and section 3(1) of the Adoption and Children Act, 2002.
50. The Council’s response to Ms C’s stage one complaint was over two weeks late. Its stage two response was in time. Overall, the Council completed its complaint procedure within 35 working days and therefore the delay at stage one is not considered to have caused significant injustice.

Agreed action

51. Within one month of the final decision, the Council will:
• Apologise to Mr B and Ms C for the faults identified.
52. Within two months of the final decision, the Council will:
• Provide staff training on the CIN procedure; this will include timescales, case actions and case recordings.
53. The Council should provide the Ombudsman with evidence that the above actions have been completed.

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Final decision

54. I have completed my investigation and uphold Mr B and Ms C’s complaint. Mr B and Ms C were caused an injustice by the actions of the Council. The Council has agreed to take action to remedy that injustice.

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Parts of the complaint that I did not investigate

55. I have not investigated complaints raised about the Council’s actions prior to July 2018 because these were part of legal proceedings and the complaint is late.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman