Summary: The complainant alleged that the Council was not meeting its statutory duties to the two foster children, whom she cares for. The Council had accepted some fault and had agreed an improvement plan. The Council subsequently delayed in carrying out some aspects of this plan caused, in part, by the national difficulty in retaining social work staff. The Council will apologise for the avoidable frustration this has caused the complainant and will correct factual inaccuracies in the children’s care plans. The Ombudsman is satisfied that this is sufficient remedy in addition to the Council’s commitment to continue to improve its services to children in its care.

The complaint

1. The complainant is a foster carer, who I refer to as Mrs X. She looks after two children, who are in the care of the Council and therefore are ‘looked after’ children. I refer to them as Child B and Child C.
2. In May 2019, the Council upheld Mrs X’s complaints about the inadequate services it had provided to her and to the foster children. The Council agreed a series of improvements. Mrs X’s complaint to the Ombudsman is that these improvements are not being carried out.
3. In particular, Mrs X says that, despite meeting the Team Manager regularly, as had been agreed, she still has to:
1. chase up the Council for agreed actions to be carried out;
2. there are delays by the Council in sending the minutes of the statutory review meetings;
3. there has been a delay in getting the dates for sibling contact;
4. there was no care plan for the review in July 2019 and, at a more recent review, there was no social worker present;
5. factual mistakes are repeated in the care plans despite Mrs X sending in corrections;
6. there was confusion about whether an Educational Psychologist’s assessment was required for Child B;
7. there was a delay in providing permission for Mrs X to take the children on holiday in October 2019.
4. Mrs X says that, as a result of the Council failing to improve its social work practice, it lets down the children and causes her avoidable distress and frustration.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

5. The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, we 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. We refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused an injustice, we may suggest a remedy.
6. The Ombudsman cannot question whether a council’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. He must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached.
7. If we are satisfied with a council’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

8. I have spoken to Mrs X on the telephone and I have considered the Council’s comments. Mrs X was sent the Council’s comments and given an opportunity to respond.
9. I issued a draft decision statement to the Council and to the complainant. I have taken account of their further comments when reaching my final decision.
10. Under the information sharing agreement between the Local Government Ombudsman and the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted), we will share the final decision statement with Ofsted.

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What I found

Legal and administrative background

11. The local authority has a duty under section 22 of the Children Act 1989 to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in its care. To achieve these duties all looked after children must have a care plan which the council must keep under regular review, normally every six months.
12. A care plan is a long-term plan for the child and should include, among other things, contact details with siblings, a personal health plan and a personal education plan.
13. Looked after children have an independent reviewing officer (IRO) who is responsible for ensuring the council abides by their care plan and the agreed actions made at a statutory review.
14. The Children and Social Work Act 2017 introduced corporate parenting principles to improve services to looked after children and those leaving care.

Key facts

15. The Council’s care plan for Child B and Child C is that they remain with Mrs X and her husband long-term. Mrs X used to care for an older sibling. But that placement came to an end. However, Child B and Child C continue to see their sibling.
16. Mrs X has a supervising fostering social worker whom she has known for the past eight years. The fostering social worker is responsible for carrying out the annual reviews of Mrs X’s care as required by the fostering regulations.
17. Mrs X says that Child B and Child C have had a series of different social workers, which they find difficult and means that they find it hard to trust them. Mrs X says that Child B and Child C want to see their older sibling, but it is best for them to know in advance when this contact will take place. Mrs X says that she spends a lot of time chasing up on agreed actions and this is frustrating and causes avoidable distress.
18. Mrs X says that there were two recent statutory reviews where there was no care plan and no social worker present. There were also repeated factual mistakes in the reports, even though Mrs X had pointed out these inaccuracies previously. She felt that the Council did not pay sufficient attention to the importance of ensuring information was recorded accurately.
19. Mrs X also says that there were unacceptable delays in issuing the minutes of the statutory reviews and that there should also be a clear timescale as to when minutes of statutory would be issued, and that care plans should be in draft so mistakes can be corrected.
20. Mrs X says that the current IRO sees the children before a statutory review and that the IRO is committed to improving services for them. Mrs X says that the current IRO is very professional and this will make a difference to future services. But Mrs X is concerned that there appears to be no escalation process for IROs to pursue concerns with Council management about poor social work practice.

The Council’s comments

21. The Council says that Child B and Child C had the same social worker between 2016 and mid-2019. But, after this, there were three social workers in quick succession. However, since July 2019, the children have had the same social worker.
22. The Council accepts that the rapid changes of social workers in mid-2019 would have been unsettling for the children and Mrs X. But, like other councils, the Council has difficulty in retaining social workers and often it has to rely upon agency social workers. There have also been difficulties in recruiting IROs. However, the Council says that there is an established IRO for the children and the Council also now has sufficient IROs (since June 2020) so that it can ensure its care planning for its looked after children is properly monitored.
23. The Council says that the rapid change of social workers in 2019 explains why there was no care plan or social worker present at the recent reviews. But this was a matter about which the IRO raised a concern directly with the Council under its ‘alert’ system, whereby IROs can escalate concerns to senior management. The Council says it has also improved its ‘alert’ system and has appointed a Corporate Parenting Lead Manager to help the Council meet its statutory duties under the Children and Social Work Act 2017.
24. As a result of the agreement reached in respect of Mrs X’s original complaint, the Team Manager met Mrs X in May, June, July and August 2019. Mrs X had been concerned that one meeting was cancelled at the last moment. But the Team Manager says that she had warned Mrs X that this meeting might have to be cancelled. The Council says that it has now been agreed with Mrs X that no further meetings are required.
25. The Council accepts that there has been some delay in arranging the sibling contact. However, this has now been resolved and there is a schedule of future contact. The Council says that part of Mrs X’s role is to advocate for the children, and it welcomes her efforts to improve social work practice in the children’s best interests.
26. The Council is aware of Mrs X’s concerns about factual inaccuracies being repeated in subsequent reports. It says that the current IRO will discuss this with Mrs X to ensure inaccurate facts are corrected and care plans are accurate.
27. The Council says that IROs are responsible for ensuring minutes of statutory reviews are made and the Council’s administrative staff will distribute them. The Council considers that it has sufficient administrative staff to do this. IROs should ensure minutes are completed within 15 working days and the administrative staff issue them within five working days. The Council considers that, now it has a full compliment of IRO staff, the above timescales should be met in future.

Analysis

28. The Council accepted that there were shortcomings in its services to Mrs X and to Child B and Child C. It apologised and set out an improvement plan, incorporating regular communication between Mrs X and the Team Manager. There were then some further difficulties in implementing that improvement plan.
29. However, it seems that the difficulty in recruiting and retaining social work staff has partly caused these difficulties. It appears that future services for Child B and Child C will be better now that they have an established social worker and IRO.
30. The Council has taken on board Mrs X’s concerns and is taking appropriate action to improve services. However, some problems with the service to Mrs X and the foster children have continued, after Mrs X’s initial complaint, and this has caused avoidable distress and frustration.

Agreed action

31. To remedy the avoidable distress, the Council will in six weeks from the date of this statement:

• issue a personal apology to Mrs X; and
• discuss with Mrs X the accuracy of Child B and Child C’s care plans and reports and it will correct factual inaccuracies, where necessary.

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Final decision

32. I am closing the complaint because I am satisfied that the Council has agreed an appropriate remedy for its faults causing injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman