Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s Children’s Services. Further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained to the Council about its Children's Services. She said:
• it did not provide its report for an Initial Child Protection Conference in the statutory time frame,
• there were frequent changes in social worker,
• a social worker did not attend an arranged meeting,
• it shared personal information about her without consent, and
• its communication with her was poor.
2. Miss X said that had caused her anxiety. She wants the Council to be more professional.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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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

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. Miss X complained to the Council in March 2023. The Council provided a stage one response in June 2023 and a stage two response in November 2023. The Council upheld most of Miss X’s complaints. It apologised for faults identified and said it had reminded staff about the timescales for sharing reports. It said it would monitor any themes emerging from complaints about Children’s Services through its Quality Assurance Framework.
11. Miss X asked for a stage three review. The Council refused as she did not make the request in the specified timeframe.
12. We will not investigate this complaint. If Miss X was unhappy with the outcome of the stage two investigation it was reasonable for her to ask for a stage three review in the specified timeframes. There is no evidence of fault in the Council’s refusal to consider at stage three.
13. In addition, the Council has apologised for the faults identified in its stage two investigation. It has made service improvements. That remedies any injustice caused. Further investigation by the Ombudsman is unlikely to lead to a different outcome.
14. If we were to investigate, it is likely we would find fault with the Council because of delays in it issuing the stage one and stage two response. However, the overall delay is just over three months therefore any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

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Final decision

15. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman