Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint about the actions of the Council’s children’s services. This is because it is unlikely the Ombudsman could add to the Council’s investigation or achieve a different outcome for the complainant.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mr X, has complained that the Council started care proceedings in relation to his children. He says the Council did not properly support him and failed to recognise and put adjustments in place to meet his family’s needs. Mr X has also complained about the actions of the children’s social worker and says she was threatening and unprofessional.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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:

• it is unlikely we could add to any previous investigation by the Council, or
• it is unlikely further investigation will lead to a different outcome.

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

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How I considered this complaint

3. I have considered the complaint and the Council’s responses. I invited Mr X to comment on a draft of this decision and have considered the comments he made in response.

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What I found

4. The law sets out a three stage procedure for councils to follow when looking at complaints about children’s social care services. At stage two the Council appoints an independent investigator and an independent person. If the complainant is unhappy with the stage two response, they can ask for a stage three review.

What happened

5. In March 2016, Mr X’s children were put on a child protection plan due to concerns they were being neglected. Following a review in June 2016, the Council decided that only limited progress had been made and in October 2016 it decided to take steps towards care proceedings. In August 2017, the Court granted a 12-month Supervision Order for the children.
6. Mr X has raised many complaints about the Council’s involvement with his family. He says it started care proceedings even though it was aware there may be autism in the family. He says the Council failed to recognise and make adjustments for his family’s needs and did not properly support them during or after the care proceedings. Mr X also argues that the social worker was abusive and unprofessional and says the parenting assessment completed by the Council was badly managed and flawed.
7. The Council considered the complaint through the three stage statutory complaints procedure for children’s services. Parts of the complaint were upheld and the stage 2 report recommended the Council meet with Mr X and his wife to apologise for some of the issues identified. It also recommended training and changes that could be made to assist it when dealing with families in similar circumstances in the future. The stage three panel agreed with the recommendations in the stage two report. It also made further recommendations about the Council contacting former staff to assist investigations. It said the Council should make corrections to an internal action plan it had produced in response to the stage two report.

Assessment

8. I will not investigate this complaint about the actions of the Council’s children’s services. This is because it is unlikely an investigation by the Ombudsman could add to the Council’s investigation or achieve a different outcome for Mr X.
9. The law sets out the procedure for councils to follow when dealing with complaints about children’s services. When this process has been followed, we would not normally re-investigate the issues unless there is evidence to show the investigation was flawed. I have considered the stage two and three reports completed for Mr X’s complaint. The reports address all Mr X’s concerns in detail and make recommendations. The Council has confirmed that it has carried out these recommendations. As Mr X’s complaints have already been thoroughly investigated it is unlikely an investigation by the Ombudsman could add to this.

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Final decision

10. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because it is unlikely he could add to the Council’s investigation or that an investigation would lead to a different outcome.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman