Summary: Miss X complained about the Council’s safeguarding actions in relation to her niece. She also complained about the Council’s decision not to investigate her complaint about alleged failings in the safeguarding action it took. We found the Council was not at fault for how it handled the safeguarding report it received and Miss X’s complaint.

The complaint

1. Miss X and Ms Y complain that following a safeguarding incident in November 2023 the Council failed to:
1. keep A’s mother out of examination room until after the forensic examination was completed as advised by the police;
2. accept and act on their concerns over A’s social worker having undisclosed conflict of interest;
3. remove the social worker from A’s case before their complaint to the manager of children’s services;
4. consider the evidence Miss X and Ms Y were giving about the situation A was in;
5. accept and consider the complaint they made in December 2023.
2. Miss X and Ms Y say this caused them avoidable distress and put A in a potentially harmful situation.
3. They would like the Council to consider the evidence they submitted showing the neglect A suffers in her mother’s care. They would also like the social services to acknowledge that A had never lived with her mother for longer than a week prior to this.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. 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)

5. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
6. If we are satisfied with an organisation’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

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What I have and have not investigated

7. Miss X and Ms Y also complained to us about the below matters which were could not investigate.
• The actions of the police as well as the actions of the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS). We have not investigated that part of their complaint because we cannot investigate the actions of these two organisations.
• The contents of a report written by a social worker which was used in court. We cannot investigate reports written for family court proceedings. And as neither Miss X nor Ms Y have parental responsibility for Child A we would be unable to disclose the contents of any such report with them.
• The Council’s position that neither Miss X nor Ms Y were involved with the child before November 2023. This was not part of the original complaint to the Council and it has not had the opportunity to address it. If Miss X and Ms Y would like us to consider of this is something that we could investigate they would firstly have to take this complaint through the Council’s complaints procedure.

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How I considered this complaint

8. I considered the information Miss X and Ms Y sent me.
9. I considered the Council response to my enquiries.
10. Miss X and Ms Y and the Council have had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered their comments before making a final decision.

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What I found

Children’s Safeguarding

11. The Children’s Act 1989 sets out the circumstances where a local authority with responsibility for social services may become involved in family life because of concerns for a child’s welfare. The law places an overarching duty on the Council to act in the best interests of the child.
12. The Council may receive referrals from third parties expressing concerns about a child’s welfare. It will consider these under ‘safeguarding’ procedures. This term refers to a set of policies and procedures used by agencies to report concerns for a child’s welfare and set out how a council will investigate such concerns.
13. Councils have a duty to investigate if there is reasonable cause to suspect that a child in their area is suffering, or is likely to suffer, significant harm. The Children Act 1989, section 47 says they must decide whether they should take any action to safeguard or promote the child’s welfare. A child protection enquiry will start with an assessment of the family circumstances and may move on through Strategy Meetings and a Child Protection Conference, which may decide on a Child Protection Plan.
14. These duties are set out in Statutory Guidance ‘Working together to safeguard children’. When a council children’s social care service receives a referral about a child who may be at risk of significant harm it must decide within one working day what type of response is needed. This will include determining whether:
• the child requires immediate protection and urgent action is required.
• the child is in need, and should be assessed under section 17 of the Children Act 1989;
• there is reasonable cause to suspect that the child is suffering, or likely to suffer, significant harm, and enquiries must be made, and the child assessed under section 47 of the Children Act 1989;
• any services are required by the child and family and what type of services;
• further specialist assessments are required in order to help the authority to decide what further action to take;
• no further action is required.

Statutory Children’s Complaints

15. The Children Act 1989 says councils have a duty, with other agencies, to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people in their area.
16. The Act and accompanying regulations also set out a three-stage statutory procedure for councils to follow when looking at most complaints about children’s social care services. The accompanying statutory guidance, Getting the Best from Complaints, explains councils’ responsibilities in more detail.
17. The Act says that a person who does not have parental responsibility can complain on behalf of a child if children’s social services consider they have “sufficient interest” in the child’s welfare.

What happened

18. Miss X and Ms Y told us that A had been living with Ms Y, her grandmother, for the past few years. The Council told us that A was in the care of her father, Ms Y’s son, who moved back in with her after a relationship breakdown with A’s mother.
19. In mid-November 2023 A’s father made a safeguarding referral to the Council.
20. After receiving the referral, the Council started its safeguarding procedure and decided it would carry out a Child and Family Assessment (CAFA). A’s father was concerned about her and two days after he reported his concern, he took her to a doctor. A’s mother also attended. Professionals decided it was safe for A to go home with her mother, and she collected her from the hospital. Miss X and Ms Y said they have not had contact with her since.
21. In early December 2023 Miss X complained to the Council about the actions of the social worker involved in the Council’s safeguarding action from November 2023. She said the police and NSPCC advised her to do this.
22. In mid- December 2023 the Council considered Miss X’s complaint but told her that it would not accept her complaint because legally she had no interest with regards to A.
23. Miss X was unhappy about the Council’s response and in February 2024 she complained to the Ombudsman to consider her complaint.

Analysis

Safeguarding

24. Once the Council received the referral in November 2023 it decided it needed to complete a CAFA to promote A’s wellbeing. We have seen the Council’s records and we are satisfied that it acted in line with its procedures and the law.
25. The Council’s records show that it did not have concerns about A’s mother being present during the medical examinations in November 2023. The Council’s records also show that its decisions around what happened in the hospital were taken in consultation with the police and the doctor. The records do not include any information about the need to keep A’s mother away during the medical examination and we cannot say the Council was at fault for not doing so.
26. We understand that Miss X and Ms Y had concerns that A’s social worker did not disclose a conflict of interest. Following Miss X’s and Ms Y’s reports of undisclosed conflict of interest the Council spoke to the social worker and satisfied itself that there was no conflict of interest. The Council confirmed the social worker involved in actions relating to November 2023 events does not know A’s mother. The Council acted properly on the reports it received, so we cannot say it was at fault for not removing the social worker from A’s case.
27. The Council’s records show that it considered all referrals it received about A’s wellbeing and acted appropriately to make sure she was being cared for. It has provided us with records from visits, and the information the social workers recorded about the conditions the A was living in. We have not seen any evidence to suggest that the Council ignored information or safeguarding reports it had received from anonymous sources or the complainants.

Complaint handling

28. When Miss X complained to the Council in December 2023 the Council considered her request. Its records show that it decided that it would not accept her complaint under neither the statutory children’s complaints procedure nor the corporate complaints procedure. It said this was because responding to Miss X’s complaint would give her access to information about A that she was not privileged to.
29. The Ombudsman cannot question the merits of a council’s decision unless there is fault in the way that decision has been made. We have found no fault in how the Council made this decision.

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Final decision

30. We have found no fault in how the Council dealt with safeguarding concerns about A and Miss X’s and Ms Y’s complaints about this. Our investigation is now complete.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman