Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about the Council's children services teams handling of her complaint. We are unlikely to find fault and it is reasonable to expect her to have sought an escalation to stage three.

The complaint

1. Miss X says the Council has failed to properly reply to her children services complaints.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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
• it would be reasonable for the person to ask for a council review or appeal. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Miss X and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. In March 2025 Miss X complained to the Council about children services actions connected to Y and Z for whom she is their mother. The Council replied at Stage One and Stage Two (in July) of its Children Act statutory complaints procedure. The Council explained Miss X could seek a stage three review by an independent panel if she was unhappy with the Council’s reply.
6. The statutory children’s complaints procedure was set up to provide children, young people and those involved in their welfare with access to an independent, thorough and prompt response to their concerns. This independence is not available to complaints put through the corporate complaints procedure. Because of this, we expect people to complete the complaints procedure before we will consider whether there were any flaws in how the Council investigated their concerns.
7. Miss X says her complaint is about the handling of her:

“Children’s Social Care complaint, including the classification, narrowing, fragmentation, conflation, delay, refusal of progression and failure to properly administer the statutory Children Act complaints procedure.”

8. We will not investigate these issues in relation to the complaint which went to stage two as it is reasonable to expect Miss X to have requested a stage three review.
9. Miss X complained about new matters in November 2025. The Council replied but refused to escalate the complaints to stage two. It set out its reasons. Our role is not to ask whether we agree or disagree with what the Council decided. Instead, we look at whether there was fault in how it made its decisions. If we decide there was no fault in how it did so, we cannot ask whether it should have made a particular decision or say it should have reached a different outcome.
10. In the circumstances of this case, we are unlikely to find fault in the Council’s decision not to escalate the newer complaints.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint. It is unlikely we will find fault in its decision not to escalate complaints made in November 2025. And it is reasonable to expect her to have requested a stage three for her complaints made in March 2025.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman