Summary: There was fault by the Council in the delays paying Miss X her fostering allowances, and then further delays in resolving her concerns after the Council paid her. The delays caused Miss X distress because she incurred unnecessary expense and then time and trouble in following this up with the Council. The Council has already apologised for the delays in her payment, and it has agreed to pay Miss X a financial remedy to fully recognise her injustice.

The complaint

1. Miss X says the Council delayed paying her the allowances she was due, as part of a foster care arrangement she had with the Council.
2. Miss X also says when the Council paid her, it did not provide any information about what the payments were for, meaning she did not know if any allowances were still due.
3. Miss X also says the Council missed an opportunity to resolve her concerns during the complaint procedure.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. 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)
5. If we are satisfied with an organisation’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

6. I spoke to Miss X and considered the information she sent me.
7. I considered the information the Council sent in response to Miss X’s complaint.
8. Miss X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.

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What I found

What should have happened

Fostering allowances

9. The Council’s website says it will pay foster carers a weekly allowance to cover the daily living costs of foster children and pay foster carers a professional fee as part of the allowance package.
10. The website says it will pay the allowance directly into a foster carer’s bank account every two weeks as soon as they start fostering.

Effective complaint handling

11. In 2020, we published a guide to effective complaint handling for the information of all Councils. In that guidance we stress the importance of putting things right at the early stages of a complaint and considering a financial remedy where appropriate.

What happened

12. Miss X was fostering a child (A), who turned 18 in mid-November 2022. At that point, the allowances the Council were due to pay her should have changed to a different payment structure.
13. There was an initial delay in the Council starting the new payment structure, because children’s social care had not completed a relevant review of A.
14. After this review, the Council started the process for payment in late November and offered to pay Miss X an interim payment, while it resolved the arrangements for her allowances.
15. Miss X initially took a small payment, but then asked to wait for further payment until the Council resolved the allowance arrangements. Miss X did this because of the inconvenience associated with how the Council offered to pay the interim payments.
16. There was a further delay in the Council paying Miss X, because it introduced a new finance system.
17. In early December, Miss X made a complaint to the Council.
18. The Council paid Miss X the backdated allowance in late December.
19. The Council did not send Miss X any information explaining the breakdown of the payments. Miss X was then unsure whether the Council had paid her the correct amount.
20. Miss X did not get this information until late March after we asked the Council to provide this.
21. In the complaint correspondence, the Council apologised for delays in paying Miss X and for the inconvenience. It also told Miss X it had reviewed how the teams involved had handled her case.
22. Miss X asked the Council to reconsider her complaint at stage two of its complaint procedure and provide her with compensation, because of the inconvenience she had suffered.
23. The Council said it would not consider her complaint at stage two. It said it could not offer compensation and told Miss X to seek legal advice to pursue this.

My findings

24. The Council’s website says it will pay foster carers in line with their fostering responsibilities. There was a delay in it paying Miss X and this was fault. The Council has apologised for this delay and now paid Miss X what she was due. It said it reviewed her case to improve the service and this is an appropriate remedy.
25. There was a delay in Miss X being given a summary of what these allowances were for. This did not happen until our intervention, which was unnecessary and was poor communication.
26. During its own complaint procedure, the Council said it would not escalate Miss X’s complaint to stage two. It said this was because when she asked for her complaint to be escalated, she had asked for compensation. The Council said it could not consider compensation as part of complaint handling.
27. On balance, I find the Council adopted a narrow definition of what Miss X meant by compensation and it did not consider a financial remedy to resolve Miss X’s complaint. This too was poor communication.
28. The overall poor communication in handling Miss X’s case after the delays in paying her, including her complaint, was fault. This fault caused Miss X an injustice because she was put to unnecessary time and trouble in following up on these matters.

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Agreed action

29. Within four weeks, the Council has agreed to pay Miss X £100 to recognise the time and trouble she experienced.
30. The Council has agreed to provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Final decision

31. There was fault in the Council’s actions.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman