Summary: Mr X complains about services provided by the Council’s children’s and adolescent services. The Council was at fault for failing to consider the complaint under the children’s statutory complaints procedure. The Council has agreed to now consider Mr X’s concerns through the statutory procedure and will apologise to him for failing to do this originally.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about the services provided to his family by the Council’s children’s and adolescent services.
2. He says this caused distress and his family was at breaking point.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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)
4. 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)
5. 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

6. As part of the investigation, I have:
• considered the complaint and the documents provided by the complainant;
• discussed the issues with the complainant;
• sent my draft decision to both the Council and the complainant and taken account of their comments in reaching my final decision.

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What I found

The statutory children’s complaints procedure

7. Complaints about some issues relating to children must be responded to using the statutory children’s complaints procedure. The procedure was set up to give children and those representing them an opportunity for a thorough independent investigation of their concerns.
8. The statutory procedure has three stages:
• Stage 1 is local resolution by the council.
• Stage 2 is an investigation by an investigating officer (IO) who will prepare a detailed report and findings. The investigation is overseen by an independent person (IP) to ensure its impartiality. The council then issues an adjudication letter which sets out its response to the findings.
• Stage 3 is a review panel with an independent chair to consider their outstanding issues.
9. The law sets out what issues must be considered using the statutory complaints procedure.

Key facts

10. This section sets out the key events in this case and is not intended to be a detailed chronology.
11. Mr X made a complaint to the Council on 16 February 2024. His complaint was about the services provided by children’s services and the adolescent support team. The Council spoke to Mr X on the telephone about his concerns and then visited him at home on 11 April to listen to his additional concerns.
12. The Council provided a stage one complaint response on 30 April. This was a thorough response which identified some fault with the way officers had dealt with Mr X and his family. However, the complaint was considered using the Council’s corporate complaint procedure and not the statutory children’s procedure. The response made no reference to the statutory procedure and signposted Mr X to stage two of the corporate complaint procedure if unhappy with the stage one response.

Findings

13. Councils should use the children’s statutory complaints procedure for complaints about actions they take to meet their duties under Part 3 of the Children Act 1989.
14. In our view, the Council’s failure to respond to Mr X’s complaint using the children’s statutory complaints procedure was fault. As a parent he met the criteria of someone “who may complain” as per the statutory guidance: Getting the Best from Complaints In my view, the content of Mr X’s complaint also meets the criteria of “what may be complained about” because he raises concerns about:
• an unwelcome or disputed decision;
• delivery or non-delivery of services; and
• attitude or behaviour of staff.
15. The statutory procedure provides an important, independent, route of redress for vulnerable children, young people and those acting on their behalf. The fault meant Mr X had to go through the wrong complaints procedure and complain to the Ombudsman unnecessarily.

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Agreed action

16. Within one month of the date of my final decision, the Council will take the following action:
• apologise to Mr X for the time and trouble he went to when pursuing his complaint through the corporate complaints procedure needlessly. We publish Guidance on Remedies which sets out our expectations for how councils should apologise effectively to remedy injustice. The Council should consider this guidance in making the apology I have recommended; and
• commission a stage two investigation into Mr X’s complaint immediately. The investigation should complete within 65 working days of the date of my final decision.
17. Within three months of the date of my final decision, the Council should remind relevant staff of the statutory guidance ‘Getting the Best from Complaints’ particularly around ‘who may complain’ and ‘what may be complained about’. The Council should also draw attention to the Ombudsman’s practitioner’s guidance. The Council should remind staff via training, or a briefing paper, a copy of which can be shared with the Ombudsman.
18. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Final decision

19. I have completed my investigation with a finding of fault for the reasons explained in this statement. The Council has agreed to implement the actions I have recommended. These appropriately remedy any injustice caused by fault.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman