Summary: We have upheld this complaint about the Council’s response to the complainant’s request for social care services for her son. The Council has agreed to the Ombudsman’s request to address the matter through the statutory procedure for complaints about children’s social care. This removes the need for us to investigate.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Ms X, complains that the Council is at fault in refusing to provide further social care provision for her son, in addition to that set out in his Education Health and Care plan.

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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 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)
3. 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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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

6. The Council has considered Ms X’s complaint under its corporate complaints procedure. However, the decision about which Ms X complains relates to children’s social care and therefore falls to be considered under the statutory procedure for complaints about children’s services.
7. If we were to investigate this complaint it is likely we would find fault causing Ms X injustice, in that the Council’s failure to use the statutory procedure has denied her the independent scrutiny the procedure provides.

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Agreed action

8. We therefore asked the Council to consider remedying the injustice by, within one month of the date of this decision, inviting Ms X to escalate her complaint to Stage 2 of the statutory procedure, setting out her rights under the procedure and the applicable timescales.
9. To its credit the Council has agreed to take the action we asked for.

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Final decision

10. We have upheld this complaint. The Council has agreed to resolve the complaint early by providing a proportionate remedy to the injustice caused to Ms X.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman