Summary: The Council is at fault for delaying its consideration of this complaint under the children’s statutory complaints procedure. However, there is no evidence of fault in how it considered the points raised in the complaint, and we therefore could not add to the investigation already carried out by the Council. The Council has agreed to make a payment to the complainant to reflect the delay in dealing with the complaint.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will call Miss X, complains about how the Council’s children’s services dealt with child protection matters relating to the care of her child who I will call Z.

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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 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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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 has had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision.

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My assessment

The statutory complaints 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. In 2019, the Council’s children’s services received a safeguarding referral which raised concerns about the care of Miss X’s child, Z. The Council subsequently removed Z from the care of Miss X and placed her with foster carers where she stayed for approximately one month before being returned to Miss X’s care.
12. Miss X complained to the Council about its decision to remove Z from her care, the support it offered Miss X and the level of care that Z received whilst in foster care.
13. The complaint was considered under the statutory procedure for children’s services complaints. It completed all three stages of the procedure and was partially upheld. The Council has apologised where it was found to be at fault and has agreed to implement a service improvement recommended by the stage three panel.

Analysis

14. The Council should have completed its stage two investigation into Miss X’s complaint within 13 weeks and provided a stage three response within 50 days. It did not and this is fault which caused Miss X a significant delay in receiving answers to questions that she raised and has caused her frustration by the delay.
15. I will however not investigate how the Council investigated the issues raised by Miss X in her complaint. This is because there is no prospect that we could add anything significant to the investigation the Council has already carried out.
16. It is not our role to reinvestigate complaints which have already been upheld, or where there is no fault in the way they have been investigated under the statutory procedure. Other than delay, there is no evidence of fault in the way Miss C’s complaint was investigated, and how the Council has responded to the fault that was identified was proportionate and in line with what the Ombudsman would seek to achieve in the circumstances of the case.

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Agreed action

17. The Council has agreed that within one month of the date of my final decision, it will offer to make a payment to Miss X of £200 to remedy the additional time and trouble she has gone to pursuing her complaint and to reflect the delay in the Council dealing with his complaint.

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Final decision

18. We uphold this complaint due to the delays in the Council considering it. We will not however investigate the substantive elements of the complaint though, because we could not add to the Council’s investigation of the matters raised by Miss X.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman