Summary: Miss X complains that while her children were on a child protection plan the Council repeatedly missed pre-arranged appointments, wrongly disclosed information about her and failed to make necessary enquiries about her children. The Council is at fault. It has agreed an apology and a financial remedy.

The complaint

1. Miss X says the Council:
1. Repeatedly missed pre-arranged appointments at her home and in the Council offices;
2. Disclosed her address to her former partner (Y), who had a history of violence, and wrongly shared child protection minutes with him; and
3. Failed to ascertain the flight details or destination when Y took their child on a court-approved holiday abroad.

She says the Council’s actions have caused her distress.

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What I have investigated

2. I have investigated the Council’s attendance at meetings, the disclosures and its actions in relation to the holiday taken abroad.

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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’. 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)
4. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I spoke to Miss X and considered information provided by Miss X and the Council. I shared this draft statement with them and considered their comments before finalising my decision.

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What I found

What happened

6. The Council placed Miss X’s children on a child protection plan. A child protection plan is a plan drawn up by the local authority when it believes a child is suffering, or is at risk of, significant harm. It sets out how the child can be kept safe, how things can be made better for the family and what support they will need. 
7. Miss X later complained about several of the Council’s actions. These complaints are listed below.

A) The Council repeatedly missed pre-arranged appointments.

8. Miss X states that social workers would arrange a home visit then not turn up. She says she made an appointment with a manager as she was unable to contact the Council by phone in 2019. She says the manager saw her sitting outside his office with her children and was aware that she had an appointment but told her he was too busy to see her. Miss X says the manager was rude and dismissive. Miss X told me the Council confirmed over the phone that her attendance was recorded in the Council’s reception book on the dates she put forward.
9. In response, the Council said it had no records of missed social worker visits, and that the social worker and manager concerned no longer work for it. It said the manager had been informed by another staff member that two meetings with Miss X in July 2019 had been cancelled. Only one of these dates coincided with the dates provided to me by Miss X.
10. I asked the Council to check its appointment book to confirm the dates of Miss X’s attendance at the Council office. The Council said it was unable to locate the book due to the office concerned being closed and cleared out during the COVID 19 pandemic. Due to a lack of corroborating evidence, I am unable to reach a finding on what happened, and it is not proportionate to pursue the issue further.

B) The Council failed to check details of flights and destination when Miss X’s former partner ,Y, took their child out of the country on holiday.

11. Miss X states that although the holiday was court approved and she was aware of the details, the Council had a duty to establish where her child, who was on a protection plan, was being taken.
12. The Council told me it did not have a policy in respect of a child subject to a child protection plan going on holiday with one of their parents.  It acknowledged that it would be considered good practice for the allocated social worker to request details from the parent and document them on the child's file. It said it is not evident from the file that these details were directly ascertained by the social worker in this case. Details of the holiday were shared in court within the private law proceedings and the court subsequently approved the holiday plans for the children with their father.  A record of this court order, containing this information was on the child's file.
13. The court had approved the holiday. However, the allocated social worker did not place a record of where the child was being taken on the file, which would have been good practice. This is fault by the Council, but there is no evidence of injustice to Miss X.

C) The Council disclosed Miss X’s address to Y

14. Miss X says the Council failed to redact her address from a report prepared for court which the Council knew Y would see. Miss X pointed out that once served, Y had access to the document and the Council was aware of this.
15. In response the Council advised Miss X it did not have time to redact the report before serving it but said it did not serve the report directly to her partner. The Council told me it was unclear how Y had obtained an unredacted copy of the report.
16. Miss X has a restraining order against Y who she says was previously violent towards her and that she was very frightened of him discovering her address. The Council is at fault for failing to redact the report and has caused distress to Miss X. The Council has agreed to pay Miss X £300 and apologise to her to remedy this fault.

D) The Council provided child protection meeting minutes to Y

17. In December 2018 Miss X raised concerns her ex-partner had misused historical conference minutes.
18. In March 2019, when further safeguarding conferences took place in relation to Miss X’s children, Y attended a conference during which information about his child was shared. The Council decided he would not receive copies of conference minutes or reports due to the concerns Miss X had raised in 2018.
19. In 2020 further concerns arose about Miss X’s children and the Council again began safeguarding planning. At the time private law proceedings were taking place between Miss X and Y in relation to their child. The court asked the Council to complete a report on the child’s welfare, which it completed and sent to Miss X and Y. In January Y attended a child protection conference and asked for the minutes. The Council agreed to provide these.
20. Miss X complained about this. The Council said it had decided to share documents with Y on the basis that he only received minutes from the meeting he attended. There had been no further concerns about inappropriate disclosure, it added, and Y had also received reports in connection with the family court proceedings. It said it warned Y that any misuse of the documents would be taken seriously.
21. I asked the Council to share its records of this decision-making or its discussions with Y. It did not do so. It has accepted that the decision should have been recorded. The Council said it believed it had told Miss X of its decision but could not provide evidence as to how and when this took place.
22. The Council is at fault for failing to record its decision-making with regards to the decision to share conference minutes with Y. Had the Council advised Miss X of this decision I think it likely she would have responded given her strong views on the matter. She has kept copies of her correspondence. I therefore find, on the balance of probabilities, that Miss X was not told.
23. The Council said Miss X’s input was unlikely to have altered its decision to share the minutes, limiting the injustice. I am satisfied that Miss X suffered distress over the decision as the reason for it was not explained. This is injustice. The Council has agreed to apologise.

Agreed action

24. The Council has agreed that within one month of my final decision it will apologise to Miss X for its poor communication and pay her £300 to recognise the distress caused by its failure to redact her address from a report seen by her ex-partner.

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Final decision

25. I have closed this case with a finding of fault by the Council, causing injustice to Miss X. The Council has agreed to a financial remedy and an apology.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman