Summary: We have upheld Mr X’s complaint because the Council failed to escalate his complaint about its involvement with his children under the statutory procedure. The Council has now agreed to investigate his complaint under that procedure, providing a proportionate remedy for the injustice caused.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council failed to act on his safeguarding concerns, showed bias against him, and did not provide appropriate support under the Equality Act 2010 and the Domestic Abuse Act 2021. He also complains that, despite partly upholding his 2024 complaint, the Council made no improvements and wrongly refused to consider his most recent complaint.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we are satisfied with the actions an organisation has taken or proposes to take. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(7), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. In April 2024, Mr X raised several concerns about social work practice, including failures to recognise domestic abuse, poor record-keeping, and a lack of a child-centred approach. The Council upheld or partially upheld several aspects of the complaint and identified service improvements.
6. In April 2025, the Council responded to a further complaint from Mr X and concluded that it needed to take no further action beyond the improvements it had already identified following Mr X’s 2024 complaint.
7. In September 2025, Mr X submitted another complaint, raising ongoing concerns and questioning whether the previous complaint outcomes had led to meaningful change.
8. The Council declined to investigate the complaint, stating that some matters were out of time and that it had already responded to or reviewed others.
9. If we investigated, we would likely find fault with the Council because Mr X’s complaint relates to children’s social care services, and the Council should normally consider complaints of this nature under the statutory children’s social care complaints procedure set out in Getting the Best from Complaints – Social Care Complaints and Representations for Children, Young People and Others.
10. While we accept the Council’s decision not to investigate Mr X’s late complaints, we do not consider it appropriate for the Council to refuse to escalate the remaining aspects of Mr X’s complaint through the statutory complaint procedure.
11. By refusing to progress the complaint, the Council denied Mr X access to the statutory complaints process, which includes independent investigation and oversight at stage two and three. This likely amounts to fault causing injustice because it prevented Mr X from having his concerns independently reviewed.
12. We therefore asked the Council to reconsider the complaint under the remaining two stages of the statutory procedure.

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Agreed action

13. To its credit, the Council has agreed to resolve the complaint by accepting Mr X’s complaint at stage two of the statutory complaint procedure; and progressing to stage three if Mr X remains dissatisfied.
14. Within one month of this final decision, the Council should:

• provide Mr X with written confirmation that his complaint is being progressed to stage two;
• set out the next steps and statutory timescales; and,
• begin its investigation in line with stage two of Getting the Best from Complaints.

15. The Council should provide us with evidence the above recommendation has been completed.

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Final decision

16. We have upheld this complaint because the Council has agreed to resolve the matter early by providing a proportionate remedy for the injustice caused to Mr X.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman