Summary: Mr X complained about the way the Council dealt with foster carer payments. The Council was at fault for having unclear policies in place and failing to respond fully to Mr X’s complaint. This caused Mr X distress and uncertainty. The Council will apologise, make payments and provide evidence that it has cancelled invoices.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about the way the Council dealt with foster carer payments related to a safeguarding investigation. He says the Council:

• owes him and his wife 17 days fostering allowance following a safeguarding investigation which the Council incorrectly says ended with a telephone outcomes meeting;
• wrongly says it overpaid them as foster carers in relation to this safeguarding investigation;
• refused to accept his offer to offset two overpayments made to him against the money the Council owes him;
• failed to follow its policy on payments to foster carers while under investigation;
• failed to address all his complaint points in its complaint response and included factually inaccurate information.

2. Mr X says this has negatively impacted on their finances. He also says this situation has caused them to lose trust in the Council.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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 future we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
4. 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)
5. 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

6. I considered evidence provided by Mr X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
7. Mr X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered their comments before making a final decision.

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What I found

Council policy at time of complaint

8. If a foster carer is subject to an allegation that necessitates the removal of the child to allow an investigation, the carer will be entitled to up to 8 weeks basic fostering allowance, including the training and support group element payment.
9. Payment will stop either at 8 weeks or earlier if the investigation has concluded and an outcomes meeting has been held.

Fostering Services National Minimum Standards 

10. Standard 28.5 of the Fostering Services National Minimum Standards outlines the requirement for a clear and transparent written policy on payments to foster carers, including the criteria for calculating payments and distinguishing between allowances and fees. 

Summary of key events

11. Mr and Mrs X are foster carers. An allegation was made about them mid-August 2023 which led to the Council starting an investigation into the allegations.
12. The Council said it finished its investigation almost four weeks later and it sent Mr and Mrs X a copy of the investigation reports the following day.
13. The Council stopped Mr and Mrs X’s foster carer payments from the date it ended the investigation, however due to a processing error, it continued to make these to Mr and Mrs X which resulted in a seven-day overpayment. The Council asked Mr and Mrs X to repay this overpayment and another overpayment it said it had incorrectly made to them.
14. Later that week, Mr X emailed the Council to say it still owed them a payment of expenses. He said he would be happy to offset this against the overpayments and he would then pay the balance owed.
15. In early October, Mr X contacted the Council again to say he had read the Council’s policy which clearly says when an allegation is made, fostering payments would continue for a maximum of eight weeks or until the investigation is complete and an outcomes meeting has been held, whichever came sooner. He said that the Council had not yet held an outcomes meeting.
16. Over the next few months, Mr X and the Council discussed this issue on several occasions. This included a meeting where Mr X again raised that the Council had not followed its policy by ending the payments before holding the outcome meeting.
17. The Council explained that it told Mr X the outcome of the investigation on the phone on the day it ended its investigation and then followed this up with an email the following day. It also said it offered to hold an outcomes meeting anytime between the last day of the investigation and the proceeding week but Mr and Mrs X said they were unavailable and so the meeting was arranged for around three weeks later.
18. In mid-March 2024, Mr X made a complaint to the Council about the same issues. In addition, he said the Council failed to adhere to the fostering services national minimum standards which says a council should be clear and transparent.
19. The Council responded mid-April and said it would not agree to Mr X’s proposal to offset the payments. It did not uphold Mr X’s complaint.

Analysis

Fostering payments and policy

20. Mr X complained that the Council refused to accept his offer to offset the overpayments made to him against the money the Council owed him. There is no duty on a council to accept such an offer and so there is no fault in the Council’s decision on this matter.
21. In response to my enquiries, the Council said after reviewing this complaint again, it considered the wording of its policy at the time to have been ambiguous which caused the differing views of Mr X and the fostering team about what constituted the end of an investigation. The national minimum standards say that a council’s policy on payments to foster carers should be clear and transparent. The Council accepted this was not the case here and this is fault. This caused Mr and Mrs X distress and uncertainty about how they should be paid.
22. The Council said because of this, it has now amended the policy to make it clearer and it would like to offer Mr and Mrs X a financial remedy of £788.22 which equates to 17 days foster carer payments. It has also offered to cancel the two outstanding invoices and offer them £250 in recognition of their time in making this complaint. I welcome this offer made by the Council and the service improvements it has already made.

Complaint handling

23. The Council failed to fully respond to all of Mr X’s complaint points, specifically about its policy being unclear. This is fault which caused Mr X uncertainty about the Council’s view of its policy. The Council should apologise for this.

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Action

24. Within four weeks of our final decision, the Council will:
• apologise to Mr X for the identified faults. We publish guidance on remedies which sets out our expectations for how organisations should apologise effectively to remedy injustice. The Council should consider this guidance in making its apology;
• make payments of £788.22 and £250 to recognise the distress and uncertainty caused to Mr X by its unclear policy and the time in making this complaint; and
• provide evidence that it has cancelled Mr X’s two outstanding invoices.
25. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

I find fault causing injustice.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman