Summary: We have upheld this complaint because the Council delayed considering a complaint under the children’s statutory complaints procedure. The Council has now agreed to resolve the complaint by apologising to the complainant and offering to make a payment to them to remedy the time and trouble they have been too. It has also arranged a stage three panel to take place at the beginning of August.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will call Miss X, complains that the Council has delayed considering her complaint about the actions of the Council’s children’s services at stage three 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. The statutory guidance says that If a complaint has entered stage one the local authority is obliged to ensure the complaint proceeds to stages two and three if the complaint requests this.

What happened

11. The Council is considering Miss X’s complaint under the statutory children’s complaints procedure and issued a response at stage two of that process. In May 2022 Miss X asked for her complaint to be escalated to stage three.
12. The Council has said that it has faced difficulty in arranging the panel as independent panel members have left the role in recent months. It says it has however recently recruited additional panel members and the panel are due to meet in early-August to consider Miss X’s complaint.

Assessment

13. If we were to investigate this complaint it is likely we would find the Council at fault. This is because there has been a significant delay in arranging the stage three panel hearing. This has meant Miss X has been to some significant time and trouble pursuing her complaint and has resulted in a delay in her receiving answers to the questions raised in her complaint.
14. We therefore asked the Council to apologise to Miss X and offer to make a payment to her of £300 to remedy the time and trouble she has been too pursuing her complaint. We also asked that, once the panel has considered Miss X’s complaint, the Council issues its final response without further delay.
15. To its credit, the Council agreed to resolve the complaint and has agreed with our recommendation. Therefore, within one month of the date of this final decision, it will write to Miss X to apologise and offer to make a payment to her of £300.

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Final decision

16. We have upheld this complaint. The Council has agreed to resolve the complaint early by providing an appropriate remedy.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman