Durham County Council (19 020 430)

Category : Children's care services > Friends and family carers

Decision : Upheld

Decision date : 16 Oct 2020

The Ombudsman's final decision:

Summary: Mrs X complains that the Council delayed in paying her for the maintenance of children it asked her to look after. The Council is at fault. It should apologise and pay Mrs X £750.

The complaint

  1. Mrs X complains that the Council delayed in paying her for the maintenance of children she was caring for when her status changed from friends and family foster carer to having a Child Arrangements0 Order.
  2. Mrs X also says the Council’s communication was poor and it failed to properly consider her complaint.
  3. As a result, Mrs X experienced financial hardship which impeded her ability to care for the children and suffered unnecessary distress at an already difficult time.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

  1. 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)
  2. If we are satisfied with a council’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

  1. I spoke to Mrs X about the complaint.
  2. I made enquiries of the Council and considered its response, including a schedule of payments to Mrs X.
  3. Mrs X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.
  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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What I found

Background

  1. In March 2019, the Council asked Mrs X and her husband to look after her brother’s children.
  2. The Council agreed to pay Mrs X a weekly Interim Fostering Allowance to meet the children’s needs.
  3. In September 2019, the Council asked the court to make a Child Arrangements Order (CAO). This means the court decided who the children should live with in the immediate future. The court ordered that the children should live with Mrs X and her husband.
  4. Following the CAO, the amount the Council agreed to pay Mrs X remained unchanged. However, from September 2019 to February 2020, the payments were irregular. This meant Mrs X went several weeks without payment and the Council had to make back-payments.
  5. Mrs X complained to the Council in November 2019.

My Findings

Payments

  1. In response to my enquiries, the Council provided a breakdown of all payments to Mrs X. The record shows that between September 2019 and February 2020 there were 20 weeks where payments were late or irregular. This is fault.
  2. The Council accepts it was at fault for these delayed payments. It says this happened because its computer system couldn’t process the change in status following the CAO. However, the Council has not remedied the injustice this fault caused Mrs X.
  3. The Council asked Mrs X and her husband to look after the children in an emergency. Mrs X did not have any time to plan or budget for the children. She relied on the payments from the Council to meet their needs.
  4. The Council eventually paid Mrs X what she was owed. However, the delay prevented Mrs X from effectively managing her finances to meet the extra expense of caring for the children. Mrs X says she had to rely on credit cards during this time.
  5. It took the Council six months to resolve the problem with its computer system so it could pay Mrs X regularly. In this time, the affected payments total over £6,000.
  6. To remedy the injustice to Mrs X, the Council should pay her £600. This recognises the avoidable interest on her credit card debt and other expenses
    Mrs X accrued because of the delay by the Council.

Communication and complaint handling

  1. Mrs X complained to the Council in November 2019. It did not treat her email as a complaint. The complaints team did contact children’s services several times to chase up Mrs X’s payments.
  2. Mrs X contacted the Council again in January 2020 because she hadn’t received a response to her complaint and her payments were still delayed. She complained again in February 2020.
  3. In response to my enquiries, the Council said it did not treat Mrs X’s email as a complaint because “it was interpreted as being an operational matter which needed prompt action to ensure payments were made, as quickly as possible”.
  4. There was no need for the Council to decide if Mrs X’s email was a complaint or an ‘operational matter’. It was clearly both. There is no reason the Council could not have both resolved the matter and responded to the complaint in a timely manner. Failure to consider Mrs X’s complaint is fault.
  5. Although the Council was trying to resolve the issue so Mrs X would be paid, it did not keep her properly or promptly informed about the action it was taking. This created uncertainty and frustration for Mrs X.
  6. Instead, Mrs X had to contact the Council several times over more than three months to ask for updates and make further complaints. This put her to unnecessary time and trouble at an already difficult time. The Council should pay Mrs X £150 to acknowledge this.

Agreed action

  1. To remedy the injustice to Mrs X from the fault I have identified the Council should:
    • Apologise to Mrs X in writing; and
    • Pay Mrs X £750.
  2. The Council should do this within four weeks of my final decision.
  3. The Council should also take the following action to improve its service:
    • Remind relevant staff of the importance of responding to complaints in a timely manner; and
    • Produce guidance for relevant staff on how to address complaints about ongoing issues.
  4. The Council should tell the Ombudsman about the action it has taken within eight weeks of my final decision.

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Final decision

  1. I have completed my investigation as I have found fault by the Council causing an injustice. The action I have recommended is a suitable remedy for this.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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