Summary: We have upheld this complaint because the Council delayed consideration of a complaint at stage two of the children’s statutory complaints procedure. The Council has now agreed to resolve the complaint by providing an appropriate remedy for the injustice caused to the complainant by its delay.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will call Mr X, complains about how the Council’s children’s services dealt with a child safeguarding referral. Mr X complained to the Ombudsman when the Council delayed responding to his complaint at stage two of the statutory children’s 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.

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My assessment

The statutory complaints procedure

6. 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.
7. The first stage of the procedure is local resolution. Councils have up to 20 working days to respond.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. Councils can only vary from the statutory complaints procedure in exceptional circumstances. Regulation 8 of The Children Act 1989 Representations Procedure (England) Regulations 2006 says councils can refuse to consider a complaint if to do so could prejudice concurrent court proceedings. However, after the proceedings have ended, a complainant can resubmit the complaint for the council to consider.

What happened

11. Mr X complained to the Council about how its children’s services had dealt with a child safeguarding it received. In May 2022, Mr X asked the Council to escalate his complaint to stage two of the statutory complaints procedure, but so far no stage two response has been sent. The Council say that the delay has been caused by a backlog of complaints at stage two.
12. If we investigated this complaint, it is likely we would find the Council at fault. This because it failed to complete its stage two investigation into Mr X’s complaint within the statutory timeframes. This has caused a delay in Mr X receiving answers to the questions he raised in his complaint.
13. We therefore asked the Council to consider remedying the injustice this caused Mr X by allocating his complaint to an investigator and independent person within one month and complete its investigation without further delay. We also asked the Council to offer to make a payment to Mr X of £100 to remedy the time and trouble he has been too pursuing his complaint and to reflect the delay in providing him with a stage two response.
14. To its credit, the Council agreed to resolve the complaint and offer to make the payment to Mr X and to allocate his complaint in an investigator within one month of the date of this decision.

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Final decision

15. We have upheld this complaint. The Council has agreed to resolve the complaint early by providing an appropriate remedy for the injustice caused to Mr X

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman