Summary: Mrs X complained about the support she received from the Council in relation to a fostering arrangement. We do not find the Council at fault.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains about the support she received from the Council in relation to fostering children. Specifically, Mrs X says the Council:
• failed to provide the promised support of a larger property or adaptations to her current property;
• repeatedly ignored safeguarding concerns she raised; and
• failed to ensure relevant agencies were updated when the children left her care.
2. As a result, Mrs X says her and her family were forced to live in unsuitable, overcrowded conditions and she had to dispose of furniture. Mrs X says this process has caused real distress and upset.

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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 the future we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
4. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, 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)

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What I have and have not investigated

6. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
7. Mrs X first brought her complaint to the Ombudsman in September 2025, meaning anything that took place before September 2024 would be considered a late complaint.
8. Mrs X’s initial fostering arrangement began in 2023 and she served notice to the Council to bring this to an end in August 2024. When serving notice to the Council, Mrs X referred to the overcrowding issues in her home, the lack of support with managing this, the safeguarding concerns she had raised, and additional expenses such as furniture and car rental.
9. These issues all occurred more than 12 months prior to Mrs X coming to the Ombudsman and she was aware of them at the time. I have seen no good reason to exercise discretion to look back further than September 2024.
10. I have only investigated Mrs X’s complaint from September 2024, after notice was served to end the initial fostering arrangement, up until September 2025. Any mention below to events that took place outside these times are for reference only.

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How I considered this complaint

11. I considered evidence provided by Mrs X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
12. Mrs X 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

Relevant law and policy

13. Councils have statutory duties to children in care to promote and safeguard their welfare. The ‘Care, Planning and Case Review (England) Regulations 2010’ and guidance sets out how councils should manage and arrange placements.
14. Section 20 of the Children Act 1989 says councils shall provide accommodation to any child in need within their area who needs it, because:

• there is nobody with parental responsibility to care for them;
• they have been lost or abandoned; or
• the person who has been caring for them being prevented from providing suitable accommodation or care.

15. Councils cannot accommodate a child under section 20 if a person holding parental responsibility objects and is willing and able to care for the child or arrange care for the child.
16. Councils need to distinguish between private arrangements made between parents and carers, and arrangements in which the child is accommodated under the Children Act 1989 and so is a looked after child.
17. When a child needs to be accommodated, the law says councils should consider placing them with family or friends first. Kinship foster carers can receive a fostering allowance and other practical support from the council.
18. The courts have considered whether arrangements for a child to live with a relative or friend are truly a private arrangement. In a key case (London Borough of Southwark v D [2007] EWCA Civ 182), the Court said where a council has taken a major role in arranging for the friend or relative to care for the child, it is likely to have been acting under its duties to provide the child with accommodation.
19. The Court considered a private fostering arrangement might allow a council (otherwise likely to have had to provide accommodation for a child), to ‘side-step’ that duty. For a council to side-step its duty, it must have given the carer enough information to allow them to give their ‘informed consent’ to accepting a child under a private fostering arrangement. To do this the carer must have known, because of what the council told them, that the child’s parent would continue to be financially responsible. Without that informed consent, the council could not side-step its duty.

What happened

20. I have summarised below some key events leading to Mrs X’s complaint. While I have considered everything submitted, this is not intended to be a detailed account of what took place.
21. Mrs X entered into a fostering arrangement for the children in 2023.
22. In August 2024, Mrs X contacted the Council to serve it notice to bring the fostering arrangement to an end. Mrs X said she had not taken this decision lightly but the Council had not provided her with the support she had expected and this was now having a detrimental effect on the health and wellbeing of the children as well as herself.
23. Following the end of the placement with Mrs X, the children moved to live with another family member, however this placement quickly broke down.
24. From the end of December 2024, the children moved back into Mrs X’s home on a temporary basis until March 2025.
25. The children then moved out of Mrs X’s home to live with their father. However, Mrs X has said there was a period of delay in removing all their belongings from her property.
26. Once the children had moved out of Mrs X’s home, their social worker notified the safeguarding unit of the updated circumstances in order for them to inform the relevant agencies. However, Mrs X continued to receive communication from the children’s schools and GP.
27. Mrs X complained to the Council about how it had managed the fostering arrangement from the start. Mrs X said the Council had failed to provide the promised support and she was still receiving contact regarding the children from their schools and GP.
28. Responding to Mrs X’s complaint, the Council said it had made efforts to provide Mrs X with the relevant support throughout the fostering arrangement. It agreed there was a delay in ensuring all the children’s belongings were collected but said this was done in March 2025 and if anything remained, Mrs X could contact the children’s social worker to arrange for these to be collected. In recognition of the inconvenience to Mrs X, the Council agreed to pay her £100. The Council also explained it had followed its usual process to alert relevant agencies the children had left Mrs X’s care and if she continued to receive communication, she could contact those agencies directly in order to ask them to stop this.

Analysis

29. Following the breakdown of the initial fostering arrangement, the children returned to Mrs X’s home in December 2024 on a temporary basis until March 2025. I have seen no evidence in relation to this arrangement that the Council agreed to take steps to support with housing adaptations or a move to a bigger property. Given the temporary nature of the arrangement, I do not find the Council at fault for failing to do so.
30. Mrs X has said there was a delay in collecting the children’s belongings from her property once they had moved out. The Council has accepted this would have caused inconvenience for Mrs X, which is injustice, and agreed to pay her £100 in recognition of that. I find that to be a suitable remedy in the circumstances.
31. Mrs X has said that she has continued to receive messages from services such as the children’s school and GP. I understand that this must be very frustrating and distressing for Mrs X, however the Council has confirmed it followed its usual process for alerting the relevant agencies once the children had moved. I do not find the Council at fault here and I cannot find the Council at fault where third party agencies have failed to properly update their records.

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Decision

32. I find no fault with the Council’s actions between September 2024 and September 2025.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman