Summary: The Council was at fault for taking too long to respond to Mrs B’s complaint. This delay caused corresponding delays to its handling of her fostering application. It has agreed to make a small, symbolic payment to recognise her injustice.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Mrs B, complains about how the Council handled her fostering application. She says the Council put it on hold because she had also made a complaint about a separate matter – and delays to the complaint-handling led to delays in her application.

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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. 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)
4. 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

5. I considered information from Mrs B and the Council, which included the Council’s complaints policy.
6. Mrs B 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

The Council’s complaints policy

7. The Council will respond to stage 2 complaints within 20 working days. If the complaint is particularly complex, this deadline can be extended by a further 10 working days.
8. If the Council decides to extend the deadline to respond to a complex complaint, this will be “communicated to the customer in good time”.

What happened

9. In early 2022, Mrs B was a foster carer. In April, dissatisfied with various elements of the Council’s fostering service, she resigned. In July, she also made a formal complaint to the Council about how she had been treated.
10. In late July the Council responded to her complaint. It then, after receiving further correspondence from Mrs B, amended that response and sent it to her again.
11. In September, Mrs B asked that her complaint be escalated to stage 2 of the Council’s complaints procedure.
12. In early November, Mrs B reapplied to be a foster carer. The Council acknowledged this but told her the application would be on hold until her stage 2 complaint had been resolved. It said it needed “to consider the nature of your grievance and whether this is likely to occur again if you were reapproved”.
13. In mid-November and early December, Mrs B contacted the Council’s complaints team and asked when she would receive a response to her complaint.
14. In late January 2023, the Council sent Mrs B its complaint response.
15. Mrs B then complained to the Ombudsman. In February, we asked the Council to issue a new response to Mrs B. In April, it sent her the same response it had sent her three months earlier.
16. In early May, the Council told Mrs B that it would re-start her fostering application if she wished.

My findings

17. There are two strands to Mrs B’s complaint: the Council’s complaint-handling and its decision to put her fostering application on hold.
18. However, I note that, if the Council had responded to her stage 2 complaint within the timescales set out in its complaints policy, this would have been resolved before she even reapplied to be a foster carer. So the issue with the delayed application would probably not have arisen.
19. Consequently, my view is that all the delays in this complaint – and Mrs B’s related injustice – stemmed from the Council’s complaint-handling failure (for which it was at fault). No further analysis of the Council’s decision to pause the fostering application is needed.
20. I note that the Council has apologised for the delay to its stage 2 response and has made Mrs B a suitable offer of £100 for the time and trouble she went to.
21. The Council should now offer Mrs B a further symbolic payment to recognise the knock-on effect of the complaint-handling delay – the delay to the fostering application – and the distress this likely caused her.

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Agreed action

22. Within four weeks, the Council has agreed to make a symbolic payment of £200 to Mrs B (in addition to the £100 it has already offered her) to recognise the distress she likely experienced from its delays to her fostering application.
23. The Council has agreed to provide us with evidence it has done this.

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Final decision

24. The Council was at fault for taking too long to respond to Mrs B’s complaint.

Investigator’s final decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman