Summary: We have upheld this complaint because the Council delayed consideration of a complaint at stage two of the children’s statutory complaints procedure. The Council has now agreed to resolve the complaint by completing its stage two investigation and providing an appropriate remedy for the injustice caused to the complainant by its delay.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will call Ms X, complains about how the Council has dealt with matters relating to the assessment of adaptations for her home to meet her disabled child’s needs. Ms X says the Council agreed to progress her complaint to stage two of the statutory children’s complaints procedure after it completed a new assessment of her home, but says she has not been updated since July.

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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 the complainant and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

The statutory complaints procedure

6. 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.
7. The first stage of the procedure is local resolution. Councils have up to 20 working days to respond.
8. 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.
9. 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

10. The Council responded to a complaint from Ms X regarding matters relating to adaptations she requested to her property to accommodate her disabled child’s needs. Ms X asked the Council to escalate her complaint to stage two. The Council offered to carry out a new assessment of Ms X’s home and offered to suspend its investigation until after it had completed the assessment.
11. The Council completed its assessment in August and has since held meetings to discuss the case. The Council however accepts it has not updated Ms X with the outcome of the assessment.
12. If we were to investigate this complaint, it is likely we would find the Council at fault. The Council should have contacted Ms X in August to inform her of the outcome of its assessment, and to give her the opportunity to escalate her complaint to stage two of the complaints process. Its failure to do so has caused a delay in considering her complaint and has meant that Ms X has gone to some time and trouble pursuing the matter.
13. We therefore asked the Council to consider the injustice this caused Ms X by writing to her to apologise, provide her with an update to the outcome of the assessment and to escalate her complaint to stage two, completing it without further delay. We also asked the Council to make a payment to Ms X of £100 to remedy the time and trouble she has been to pursuing her complaint.
14. To its credit, the Council agreed to resolve the complaint and has agreed with our recommendation. It will therefore write to Ms X and make the payment of £100 within one month of the date of my final decision.

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Final decision

15. We have upheld this complaint. The Council has agreed to resolve the complaint early by providing an appropriate remedy for the injustice caused to Ms X

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman