Summary: Mrs X complained that the Council moved her daughter to a location without her consent under section 20 of the Children Act 1989. The Council was at fault for failing to consider her complaint properly under the statutory children's complaints procedure. The Council has agreed to investigate her complaint through the correct statutory process.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains that the Council moved her daughter under section 20 of the Children Act without her written consent. She says she objected to the location of the placement and believed it put her daughter at risk.
2. Mrs X also complains of a section 47 safeguarding failure. Since our involvement, she has additionally raised concerns about inaccuracies in assessments, delays in statutory visits and the failure to finalise her daughter’s Education, Health and Care plan.

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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 significant injustice, or that could cause injustice to others in the future 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(1), as amended)
5. Under our information sharing agreement, we will share this decision with the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted).

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What I have and have not investigated

6. Mrs X’s complaint about safeguarding, and the things she has raised since complaining to us, do not appear to have been considered by the Council and are therefore premature. Mrs X should raise these complaints directly with the Council so it can consider them through wither its corporate complaints procedure or the children’s statutory complaint procedure, as appropriate.
7. I have, however, considered how the Council handled Mrs X’s complaint about her daughter’s placement.

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How I considered this complaint

8. I considered evidence provided by Mrs X and the Council as well as statutory guidance.
9. Mrs X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments before making a final decision.

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What I found

10. The statutory guidance, ‘Getting the best from complaints’, sets out a three-stage procedure for complaints about certain aspects of children’s social care. I refer to this as ‘the statutory procedure’. This includes complaints about actions taken under section 20 of the Children Act 1989.
11. The benefit of the statutory procedure is that the complainant gets an independent investigation of their complaint (at stage 2), and, if they wish, an independent review (at stage 3).
12. If a complainant wants to progress their complaint through all three stages of the statutory procedure, then they have the right to do so.
13. The Ombudsman normally expects councils (and complainants) to follow the full statutory procedure before involving us. A complaint can only be referred to the Ombudsman earlier if, following a robust stage two investigation, all significant parts of the complaint have been upheld.
14. The Council considered Mrs X’s complaint under its corporate complaints procedure, for which it was at fault. Mrs X did not get an independent consideration of the complaint at stage 2, which caused her an injustice. The delay in dealing with the complaint through the correct procedure has impacted on Mrs X and her family.
15. As the criteria for an early referral to the Ombudsman have not been met, the Council should now consider the complaint under the statutory procedure.
16. If Mrs X is still unhappy after all three stages of the statutory procedure have been completed, she can come back to us and ask us to consider her complaint.

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Action

17. Within two weeks, the Council has agreed to:
• Write to Mrs X, apologising for not considering her complaint under the statutory procedure and the impact of the delay by not considering her complaint through the correct procedure. We publish guidance which sets out what we expect an effective apology to look like. The Council will consider this guidance when writing to Mrs X.
• Allocate an investigator to consider Mrs X’s complaint under stage 2 of the statutory children’s complaints procedure.
18. The Council will provide us with evidence it has done these things.

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Decision

19. The Council was at fault for failing to handle Mrs X’s complaint properly. This caused her an injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman