Summary: Miss B complained the Council failed to assess risk and provide support to her when she fostered a child. The Council was at fault. The Council failed to share relevant information with Miss B, did not take sufficient action to mitigate risks, and failed to update the risk assessment. As a result, Miss B was denied the opportunity to make an informed decision about the placement, and there is uncertainty about whether an incident of physical harm might have been prevented. The Council has agreed to make a symbolic payment, update its records, and identify training needs of relevant staff.

The complaint

1. Miss B complains the Council failed to appropriately assess risk and provide support to her as a foster carer when she fostered a child, who I will refer to as C.
2. She suffered physical harm from C. She also says she has suffered anxiety and stress, and she has been financially impacted.
3. Miss B would like the Council to take accountability for its failure to give adequate information to her about C and carry out a proper risk assessment. She would also like a financial remedy.

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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 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)
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(1), as amended)
6. 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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What I have and have not investigated

7. I have investigated matters in this case from early March 2025, when C’s allocated social worker made a request for C to have a new foster placement, to early August 2025 when the Council sent its stage two complaint response to Miss B. I reference matters outside of these dates for context.
8. I have not investigated any complaint about the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) investigation. This is because this complaint investigation is about the actions of Dorset Council. The LADO investigation was carried out by Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council. As such, if Miss B wishes to complain about the LADO investigation, she would need to raise a complaint with BCP Council and complete its complaint procedure. Once completed, if she remains unhappy, she may bring a new complaint to us about such matters.
9. I have not investigated any matter relating to the independent fostering agency’s (IFA) investigation. This is because this did not form part of Miss B’s original complaint to us. I also have not seen that Miss B has raised any complaint she may have about this to the IFA or Council first.

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How I considered this complaint

10. I read Miss B’s complaint and spoke to her about it on the phone.
11. I considered evidence provided by Miss B and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
12. Miss B and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments before making a final decision.

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What I found

Fostering

13. Children who are looked after by a council may be placed in foster care. A looked after child may be voluntarily accommodated under section 20 of the Children Act 1989 or may be the subject of a legal order such as a Care Order and/or Placement Order under section 31 of the Children Act. Councils have their own foster carers and may also use foster carers from private/independent agencies.

Right to information

14. Fostering Services National Minimum Standards (2011) says foster carers have a right to full information about a child they foster. Information provided should be up to date and include any recent significant events, to help carers understand and predict the child’s needs and behaviours. Information provided should also be in clear, comprehensive written form.

Local Authority Designated Officer

15. The Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) is a person responsible for managing and overseeing investigations into allegations that somebody who works with children has behaved in a way that may pose a risk to children.

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What happened

16. This is a summary of events outlining key facts and it does not include everything that has happened in this case.
17. Miss B is a foster carer who is registered with an IFA.
18. C’s social worker was allocated to her in January 2025. A risk assessment was completed prior to this, which noted C needs continued support in identifying safe ways of managing difficult emotions. The Council says in February 2025, C told a professional she had previously punched a member of school staff.
19. In early March 2025, the social worker requested a foster placement for C. The matching form stated C can become verbally heightened, and she is unable to recognise triggers to her emotions which leads to dysregulation. The Council says the next day, C’s school told it she had been physically aggressive towards another student. The Council says the social worker acknowledged this email. On the same day, the Council provided the referral information to the IFA with whom Miss B was an approved foster carer. The referral information included a copy of the January 2025 risk assessment and the placement matching form.
20. In mid-March 2025, the Council says C’s school told it C had been aggressive towards another student and had hit and kicked staff. A week later, Miss B and the social worker spoke on the phone and discussed C’s needs. The Council’s record of the conversation says Miss B asked what C’s anger looked like, and the social worker told her he believed this to be mostly verbal, but there had been a recent incident of C kicking a wall and banging doors. A placement planning meeting was held the next day, and C’s placement with Miss B began.
21. In mid-April 2025, a stability meeting was held where Miss B told the Council she wanted to give notice on the placement. It was noted there had been a recent deterioration in C’s behaviour and there had been an incident where C had hit her outreach worker. Another stability meeting was held a week later. The Council noted Miss B had worries about C’s physical aggression and what might progress. Concerns were also noted around whether Miss B could keep C safe.
22. A few days later, Miss B reported to the Council C had punched and kicked her, and arrangements were made by the Council for C to stay elsewhere that night. A duty social worker met with C the next day and C provided her account of events. As a result, a referral to the LADO was made and the IFA started its own internal investigation.
23. Miss B complained to the Council in May 2025. She told it before C was placed with her, she spoke with C’s social worker and asked him what C’s heightened state looked like, to which he confirmed it was mostly verbal. She complained that she and an outreach worker had been physically assaulted by C, so she felt it was clear the referral information from the Council was not a true reflection of C, and there had not been a proper risk assessment about her violence. Miss B also complained there had been failings with the LADO investigation.
24. The Council responded to Miss B’s complaint at the end of July 2025. It told her there had been no intention to withhold information about C when the placement referral was made, but acknowledged it could have given Miss B further information about C’s physical behaviours. It also said risk mitigation planning would have better supported the matching process. The Council apologised to Miss B for not providing her with the full information required to support this process. It also told her it would discuss training needs with management regarding staff members who complete referral information.
25. Miss B raised a stage two complaint with the Council in August 2025 as she was unhappy with its response. She also told the Council it owed her a sum of money due to the non-arrival of C’s taxi to school. The Council sent Miss B a stage two complaint response and told her it had nothing further to add to its original response. Miss B brought her complaint to us later that month.

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Analysis

26. Before C’s placement with Miss B began, the Council had been given information about C’s physical behaviours on three separate occasions. One incident where C had been physically aggressive towards another student, and another incident where she had been physically aggressive towards another student and had also hit and kicked a member of staff. The Council also says C told a professional in February 2025 she had previously punched a member of school staff in the face. The Council knew of this information before the placement started, before the placement planning meeting, and at the time the social worker had a telephone conversation with Miss B about C’s behaviours. But, it did not provide this information to Miss B.
27. As outlined in paragraph 14, Fostering Services National Minimum Standards (2011) says foster carers have a right to full information about a child they foster, including any recent significant events, to help carers understand and predict the child’s needs and behaviours. The Council’s failure to provide Miss B with the full information and events mentioned above in paragraph 26 before the placement began, was fault.
28. The Council recognises this fault. It says its failure to share the information with Miss B about C’s behaviour during emotional dysregulation was an oversight. While the placement matching form stated C would ideally need a foster carer that has experience with trauma informed practice, it did not specify anything about physical behaviours towards carers or refer to previous events regarding C’s physical behaviour. As such, Miss B did not have sufficient information about potential risks and C’s physical behaviours prior to the placement, because of the fault. This denied her the opportunity to allow her to make an informed decision about the placement and whether she could meet C’s needs. This is an injustice.
29. The Council also did not take sufficient action to mitigate potential risks after the placement began when Miss B raised concerns about C’s physical behaviours during a stability meeting in April 2025. She told the Council she was worried about the incident of C hitting her outreach worker, and she had worries about how this behaviour might progress. The Council did not take sufficient action or make plans going forward specifically regarding C’s physical behaviours to mitigate potential future incidents.
30. Further, the Council did not update the risk assessment, factoring in the information it held about C’s physical behaviours and the incidents. The Council should have updated the risk assessment when it was first informed about the incidents in March 2025 before the placement began, and after the stability meetings the following month when it knew of the incident involving C hitting her outreach worker and Miss B raised concerns about physical aggression. The Council did not do this, which is poor record-keeping. This was fault. The Council’s failure to take sufficient action to mitigate risks and update the risk assessment has caused uncertainty about whether the circumstances around the incident of physical harm to Miss B might have been different or prevented.
31. Miss B referenced a sum of money owed to her by the Council in her stage two complaint for taxi fees she paid due to the non-arrival of the C’s taxi to school. In response to my enquiries, the Council told me it recognises these costs were incurred by Miss B and it will arrange to reimburse Miss B, which is appropriate.
32. Sometimes we will recommend a financial payment to the person who brought their complaint to us. This might be to reimburse a person who has suffered a quantifiable financial loss, or it might be more of a symbolic payment which serves as an acknowledgement of the distress or difficulties they have been put through. But our remedies are not intended to be punitive and we do not award compensation in the way a court might. Nor do we calculate a financial remedy based on what the cost of the service would have been to the provider.
33. I have not recommended the Council apologise to Miss B, as it has already done so in its complaint response which is appropriate. I also have not recommended service improvements regarding the matching process or referral information. This is because the Council has already said it will be discussing the training needs of staff involved in these processes, and it will be providing quality assurance to referral information. However, I have made a service improvement recommendation regarding the other identified faults.

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Action

34. To remedy the outstanding injustice caused by the identified fault, the Council will pay Miss B £350 within four weeks of my final decision. This is to acknowledge the injustice caused by the Council’s failure to share all information with Miss B about C before the placement began, the failure to take sufficient action to mitigate risks, and the failure to update the risk assessment.
35. The Council will also take the following actions within three months of my final decision:
• Ensure its records regarding C, such as her care plans, risk assessments, and future referral documents are clear and up-to-date, specifically with regards to details about potential risks, physical behaviours, and details of significant events the Council has been informed of.
• Identify training needs of relevant staff members who carry out mitigation planning and risk assessments regarding the fault identified in this case, and provide training or guidance as needed to ensure sufficient mitigation planning and updated risk assessments in future.
36. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

37. I uphold Miss B’s complaint and find fault causing injustice. The Council has agreed actions to remedy injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman