Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint that the Council did not provide proper support to the complainant when he was looking after a friend’s child. This is because the Council has decided to do a re-assessment.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Mr X, says the Council did not provide appropriate support when he looked after a friend’s child. Mr X says he was acting as a foster parent and the Council should have made fostering payments and provided support.

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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’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe the Council has provided a fair remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
3. The Ombudsman normally only investigates a complaint once the complainant has completed the Council’s complaints process.

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How I considered this complaint

4. I read the complaint and the Council’s stage 1 reply. I found out the Council will now do a re-assessment. I considered comments Mr X made in reply to a draft of this decision.

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What I found

What happened

5. In 2018 Mr X was asked by the Council to look after a friend’s child. Mr X believes that he and his wife were acting as foster parents but never received the appropriate support and payment.
6. The Council responded to a complaint in February 2019. It invited Mr X to escalate the complaint within 14 days if he was dissatisfied with the reply. The Council said it would do a re-assessment of the private fostering status.
7. Mr X sent a letter in which he disputed the accuracy of the Council’s reply. The Council sent a further response in February. The second reply did not offer further escalation rights but repeated the Council would do a re-assessment which would start in a few days time.
8. The Council’s involvement with Mr X regarding the child ended in June 2020.

Assessment

9. I will not start an investigation for the following reasons.
10. Mr X sent a letter in February which the Council could have treated as a stage two complaint. However, while not treating it as a stage two, it did reply and said it would do a re-assessment in the next few days.
11. The Council did not do the re-assessment. But, Mr X also does not seem to have chased the Council, which he could have done when it became apparent the Council was not doing the re-assessment.
12. The Council has agreed to do the re-assessment and hopes to complete the work within 45 working days. Mr X has confirmed a social worker has been in touch to start the process.
13. Mr X can make a new complaint to the Ombudsman if he remains dissatisfied after the Council has completed the assessment. While I appreciate Mr X challenged the February 2019 letter, and may feel he did all he could to complete the Council’s process, it would not be appropriate to start an investigation now while the Council is still working on the case. If Mr X makes a new complaint to the Ombudsman he can include issues about the complaint handling in 2019. He can also include any dissatisfaction he may have about the outcome of the re-assessment, and any other issues he has previously raised with the Council.

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Final decision

14. I will not start an investigation because the Council has decided to do a re-assessment.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman