Summary: The Council is at fault for delaying consideration of this complaint at stage two of the children’s statutory complaints procedure. The Council has agreed to start a stage two investigation by allocating the complaint to an Independent Investigator within a month.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will call Miss X, complains about the actions of the Council’s children’s services however her complaint has not been progressed to stage two of the statutory complaints procedure.

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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 complainant and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
6. The complainant now has an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I will consider their comments before making a final 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 about the actions of its children’s services. A telephone call took place between the Council and Miss X and the Council subsequently wrote to Miss X outlining the agreed actions it planned to take. Miss X says she did not receive this letter.
12. In January 2022, Miss X complained to the Council again about the same issues previously raised. The Council did not progress her complaint to stage two of the complaints process because it did not consider that it could achieve the outcome she was seeking.

Analysis

13. The Council should have progressed Miss X’s complaint to stage two of the statutory complaints procedure when it asked her to do so in January. Its failure to do so is fault as the reason it gave for not doing so is not a valid one.

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Agreed action

14. Within one month of the date of my final decision, the Council has agreed to start its stage two investigation into Miss X’s complaint by appointing an Independent Person and writing to her to advise her of the next steps.

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Final decision

15. I uphold this complaint with a finding of fault.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman