Summary: The Council is at fault for delaying considering a complaint at stage two of the children’s statutory complaints procedure. The Council has now completed its stage two investigation and has agreed to offer to make a payment to the complainant to remedy the time and trouble its delay has caused him.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will call Mr C, complains about the involvement of the Council’s Disabled Children’s Team with his son. Mr C has asked the Council to investigate his complaint at stage two of the Children Act statutory complaints procedure but did not receive a response.

Back to top

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).

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Mr C and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
6. Mr C now has an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I will consider their comments before making a final decision.

Back to top

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. Mr C complained to the Council about the Disabled Children’s Team in relation to its involvement in his son.
12. The Council considered Mr C’s complaint under stage one of the statutory complains procedure. Mr C was dissatisfied with its response, so in mid-October he asked the Council to progress his complaint to stage two of the procedure.
13. The Council says there were initially problems corresponding with Mr C, meaning a statement of complaint could not be agreed until January. In late April the Independent Officer and Independent Person completed their reports. However, a final response was not issued to Mr C until mid-August.

Analysis

14. The Council should have completed a stage two investigation a maximum of 13 weeks after Mr C requested it. It did not and this is fault. There was a significant delay in Mr C receiving answers to the questions he raised about the Council’s involvement with his son. He has also been caused frustration by the delay.

Back to top

Agreed action

15. Within one month of the date of this decision, the Council has agreed to:
• Make a payment to Mr C of £200 to remedy the time and trouble he has gone to in pursuing his complaint, and to reflect the Council’s delay in dealing with his complaint

Back to top

Final decision

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

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman