Summary: The Council is at fault for delaying considering a complaint at stage one of the children’s statutory complaints procedure. The Council has agreed to complete its stage one investigation without further delay and will offer to make a payment to the complainant to remedy the time and trouble its delay has caused her.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will call Ms X, complains about the lack of support the Council has provided her son who is disabled. Ms X asked the Council to investigate her complaint at stage two of the Children Act statutory complaints procedure but has not received a response

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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 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)
3. Under our information sharing agreement, we will share the final decision with the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted).

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Ms X and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
6. The complainant now has an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I will consider their comments before making a final decision.

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My assessment

The statutory complains procedure

7. The law sets out a three-stage procedure for councils to follow when looking at complaints about children’s social care services. The accompanying statutory guidance, Getting the Best from Complaints, explains councils’ responsibilities in more detail.
8. The first stage of the procedure is local resolution. Councils have up to 20 working days to respond.
9. If a complainant is not happy with a council’s stage one response, they can ask that it is considered at stage two. At this stage of the procedure, councils appoint an investigator and an independent person who is responsible for overseeing the investigation. Councils have up to 13 weeks to complete stage two of the process from the date of request.
10. If a complainant is unhappy with the outcome of the stage two investigation, they can ask for a stage three review by an independent panel. The Council must hold the panel within 30 days of the date of request, and then issue a final response within 20 days of the panel hearing.

What happened

11. The Council received a complaint from Ms X, via her MP, in December 2020. She complained about the lack of support the Council was providing for her son, who is disabled.
12. The Council should have considered the complaint at stage one of the statutory complaints procedure and issued a response within 20 working days. However, she did not receive a response so complained to the Ombudsman.

Analysis

13. The Council should have completed a stage one investigation into Ms X’s complaint within 20 working days after receiving it. It did not and this is fault. Ms X has not received answers to questions she raised about support for her son and has been caused frustration by the delay.

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Agreed action

14. Within one month of the date of this decision, the Council has agreed to:
• Complete its stage one investigation and write to Ms X to inform her of the outcome, ensuring it provides her with appropriate information about her rights under the process.
• Make a payment to Ms X of £200 to remedy the time and trouble she has gone to in pursuing her complaint, and to reflect the Council’s delay in dealing with her complaint

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Final decision

15. I uphold this complaint with a finding of fault causing an injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman