Summary: The Ombudsman has completed its investigation. The Council has agreed to investigate Mr Y’s complaint through the statutory children’s complaints procedure in accordance with the Children Act and the statutory guidance.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr Y, complains the Council neglected his child and their half sibling. It ordered him to return his child to their mother, despite injuries the child had suffered and his view this was not in their best interests. The children were later removed from their mother’s care.
2. Mr Y says the issues have caused him stress and upset, and financial loss due to costs for court attendance and time off work to care for his child. He says the issues also resulted in loss of contact between the half-siblings.

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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 discussed the complaint with Mr Y by telephone and made enquiries of the Council.
6. I consulted the statutory guidance, ‘Getting the Best from Complaints’.
7. I issued a draft decision and invited comments from Mr Y and the Council before making a final decision.
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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What I found

What should happen

9. The Children Act and statutory guidance ‘Getting the Best from Complaints’ say those in receipt of certain services can make representations or complaints to the Council. The Council must investigate the complaint, subject to certain restrictions.
10. There are three stages to the statutory social services complaints procedure. The first stage allows an informal resolution of the complaint. The complainant is entitled to a detailed independent investigation of the complaint at the second stage of the process if they remain dissatisfied. The Council should appoint an Independent Person (IP) to oversee the investigation. At the final stage, an independent ‘Complaints Review Panel’ can consider the complaint.
11. At each stage, the complainant has the right to ask for the complaint to be considered at the next stage of the procedure. Once the complainant has completed the statutory complaints procedure, they can refer the complaint to the Local Government Ombudsman within twelve months if they remain dissatisfied.

What happened

12. Mr Y has a young daughter, whom I will call X. Mr Y and X’s mother are separated and until 2018 X lived primarily with her mother but had regular contact with Mr Y.
13. In August 2017 Mr Y refused to return X to her mother because he had concerns about her wellbeing. A social worker told Mr Y to return X to her mother. He did not, and court proceedings started.
14. The court ordered Mr Y to return X to her mother’s care. Mr Y was permitted to have contact with X every fortnight.
15. The following year Mr Y received a phone call from X’s nursery regarding some injuries found on her half sibling. The Council removed X from the care of her mother, and she lived with Mr Y on a temporary basis whilst child protection proceedings went ahead. In March 2018 the court ordered for X’s half sibling to be placed in the care of the Council.
16. In 2019 the courts concluded there was a risk of harm to X and her half sibling and there was a history of domestic abuse. The court also found that X's half sibling had suffered non-accidental injuries.
17. The court ordered that X should live with Mr Y and have some contact with her mother. X’s half sibling was adopted by another family. Mr Y is currently seeking to vary the contact arrangements as he considers that it is not in X’s best interests to have contact with her mother.
18. Once all court proceedings had concluded, Mr Y complained to the Council because he felt there had been a missed opportunity to safeguard X and her half sibling. He says, had the Council allowed X to remain with Mr Y in August 2017, X would have been safeguarded from the ongoing risk presented by her mother. He also says that social workers missed several opportunities to identify injuries.
19. Mr Y says he has suffered distress and financial loss because the proceedings were prolonged. He lost earnings from work and had avoidable legal expenses.
20. Mr Y complained to the Council, but in February 2019 it refused to accept his complaint at the second stage of the statutory complaints procedure. It said: “as the concerns you raise, relate to events that happened over twelve months ago, and it has become clear through the process of your stage one complaint that the concerns you raise relate to decisions made in the court arena, and information that was presented to the court. This could have been challenged within that arena at the time through your legal representative”.
21. Mr Y approached the Ombudsman. During our assessment of his complaint, we said the Ombudsman could not investigate issues that have been subject to court proceedings. Furthermore, unless there is good reason to do so, we cannot investigate events which happened more than 12 months ago.
22. Mr Y responded to our decision made at the assessment stage and explained why he was unable to complain sooner. We decided this demonstrated good reason. We also decided that it may be possible to separate some of Mr Y’s concerns from the issues which were subject to court proceedings.
23. After passing the case for investigation, we made enquiries of the Council to gather information about Mr Y’s complaint. It responded with a proposal to investigate Mr Y’s complaint through the statutory process: “The Children’s Services Complaints Manager has asked me to contact you regarding this complaint. Having reviewed the complaint, they would like to offer to escalate the complaint to Stage 2 of the process as there seems to be gaps in the screening and consultation between the team that responded at stage 1 and the children’s complaints service”

Was there fault in the Council’s actions causing injustice to Mr Y?

24. Mr Y’s complaint falls within the scope of the statutory children’s complaints procedure because it concerns the attitude and behaviour of staff providing statutory social service functions, and the quality and appropriateness of a service. Mr Y also meets the criteria of a person who can complain because he has parental responsibility for X and has ‘sufficient interest’ in her welfare.
25. ‘Getting the Best from Complaints’ guidance says that councils do not need to consider complaints more than one year after the grounds to make that complaint arose. But time limits can be extended, provided it is possible to consider the complaint in an effective and efficient way. Councils should also consider old complaints in cases where it would be unreasonable to have expected the person to have made the complaint sooner.
26. If the Council refuses to accept a complaint on time grounds, the Complaints Manager should write to the complainant setting out their reasons for adopting that position. I do not consider the Council gave a clear rationale in this case.
27. The Council concedes on reflection that it should have accepted Mr Y’s complaint at stage two of the process. It has agreed to progress the complaint now, and I agree this is an appropriate solution and in line with the regulations. Mr Y would then be entitled to approach the Ombudsman again within twelve months of the Council’s complaint investigation completing.

Agreed action

28. The Council will, without any delay, escalate Mr Y’s complaint to the second stage of the statutory children’s complaints procedure. The Council will be mindful of the timescales prescribed within the guidance and provide an update to the Ombudsman within four weeks of our final decision.

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Final decision

29. I have completed my investigation because the Council has agreed to escalate Mr Y’s complaint in line with the statutory guidance.
30. Mr Y is entitled to approach the Ombudsman again within twelve months of the Council’s complaint investigation completing if he remains dissatisfied with the findings.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman