Summary: We uphold Ms X’s complaint the Council has failed to reply to her complaint within its Children Act statutory complaints’ procedure. The Council has now agreed to do so.

The complaint

1. We uphold Ms X’s complaint the Council has failed to reply to her complaint within its Children Act statutory complaints’ procedure. The Council has now agreed to do so.

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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 an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
3. Under our information sharing agreement, we will share the final decision with the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted).

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Ms X and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

The statutory complaints’ procedure

6. The law sets out a three-stage procedure for councils to follow when looking at complaints about children’s social care services. The accompanying statutory guidance, Getting the Best from Complaints, explains councils’ responsibilities in more detail.
7. The first stage of the procedure is local resolution. Councils have up to 20 working days to respond.
8. If a complainant is not happy with a council’s stage one response, they can ask that it is considered at stage two. At this stage of the procedure, councils appoint an investigator and an independent person who is responsible for overseeing the investigation. Councils have up to 13 weeks to complete stage two of the process from the date of request.
9. If a complainant is unhappy with the outcome of the stage two investigation, they can ask for a stage three review by an independent panel. The Council must hold the panel within 30 days of the date of request, and then issue a final response within 20 days of the panel hearing.

What happened

10. Ms X says her nephew, Y, was placed with her, as a looked after child, in January 2021. She says he was 15. She says the Council failed to support her properly as a carer and him as a looked after child. This includes receiving no financial support until October 2021. She says the Council closed the case in March 2022 having transferred the case to another council, before that council had agreed to accept responsibility. Ms X says she complained to the Council in June 2022. She says the first reply referred to it being a social care response but the Council’s stage two reply, of October 2022, is a corporate response. Ms X has provided us with consent from Y for her to complain on his behalf.
11. If we were to investigate it is likely we would find fault causing the complainant injustice because care of looked after children is an issue which falls within the Children Act statutory complaints’ procedure and the regulations have not been complied with.

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Agreed action

12. The Council has agreed to:
• Complete stage two of the Children Act statutory complaints process complying with the regulations and provide her with her rights under the process.

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Final decision

13. I uphold this complaint with a finding of fault causing an injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman