Summary: We uphold Miss X’s complaint, as the Council delayed considering a complaint in the children’s statutory complaints procedure. The Council has agreed to complete its stage three review panel without further delay. It will offer to make Miss X a payment to remedy the time and trouble its delay caused her.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I will call Miss X, complains about the actions of the Council’s children services team. Miss X asked the Council to investigate her complaint in the Children Act statutory complaints procedure but has not received a final response.

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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’. 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)
3. Under our information sharing agreement, we will share the final decision with the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted).

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the Miss X and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
6. I considered Miss X’s comments on a draft version of this decision.

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My assessment

The statutory complains procedure

7. The law sets out a three-stage procedure for councils to follow when looking at complaints about children’s social care services. The accompanying statutory guidance, Getting the Best from Complaints, explains councils’ responsibilities in more detail.
8. The first stage of the procedure is local resolution. Councils have up to 20 working days to respond.
9. If a complainant is not happy with a council’s stage one response, they can ask that it is considered at stage two. At this stage of the procedure, councils appoint an investigator and an independent person who is responsible for overseeing the investigation. Councils have up to 13 weeks to complete stage two of the process from the date of request.
10. If a complainant is unhappy with the outcome of the stage two investigation, they can ask for a stage three review by an independent panel. The Council must hold the panel within 30 days of the date of request, and then issue a final response within 20 days of the panel hearing.

What happened

11. Miss X complained to the Council in 2018 about the actions of the children services team in relation to her child who is a looked after child. The Council considered the complaint under stage one of the statutory complaints procedure and issued its response in May 2019. It completed its stage two response in April 2020. The stage two investigating officer accepted there had been delays.
12. Within days Miss X requested a stage three. The Council say following conversations with the Council’s complaint officers, Miss X opted to take up the Council’s option of a new stage two rather than a stage three. That then did not happen.
13. Miss X then repeated her request for a stage three review panel. The allocated chair for that panel wrote to Miss X in March 2021 explaining how he saw the review panel’s role. He included that “the panel cannot consider any new information”. This is not supported by the regulations nor the guidance. Getting the Best out of Complaints says at 3.10 that Review Panels are designed to obtain any new information or advice which might help to resolve the complaint.

Analysis

14. The stage two process has not met the statutory timeframes which is fault. This has caused Miss X some time and trouble. In addition, the delays in the last 12 months in arranging the stage three and the erroneous advice given to her are further fault.

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Agreed action

15. Within 1 month of the date of my final decision, the Council has agreed to:
• Complete its stage three review panel and write to Miss X to inform her of the outcome.
• Pay Miss X £300 to remedy the time and trouble she has gone to pursuing the complaint and to reflect the delay in the Council dealing with her complaint.

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Final decision

16. We uphold this complaint with a finding of fault causing an injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman