Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint the Council failed to consider his complaint under the statutory children’s complaints procedure. This is because the Council agreed to resolve the complaint early by providing a proportionate remedy for the injustice caused.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council responded to his complaint under the corporate complaints procedure instead of the statutory children complaints procedure.

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

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My assessment

5. The Children Act 1989 sets out a three-stage procedure for councils to follow when looking at complaints about children’s social care services. Mr X complains the Council failed to investigate and respond to his complaint under the statutory children complaints procedure.
6. If we were to investigate it is likely we would find fault causing the complainant injustice because the Council investigated and responded to his complaint under the wrong procedure. I am satisfied this will have caused Mr X some frustration.
7. We therefore asked the Council to consider remedying the injustice caused by the likely fault by completing the following:
• Start a stage two investigation under the statutory children complaints procedure.
• Apologise to Mr X for failing to deal with the complaint under the statutory procedure.
• Remind relevant staff of the types of complaints that should be considered under the statutory procedure. (section 2.2. of the statutory guidance ‘Getting the best from complaints’ details this)

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Agreed action

8. The Council agreed to resolve the complaint and will complete the above within four weeks of the final decision to put things right.

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Final decision

9. We have upheld this complaint because the Council agreed to resolve the complaint early by providing a proportionate remedy for the injustice caused.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman