Summary: Mrs X complained about the way the Council dealt with special guardianship financial support. The Council was at fault for failing to hold annual reviews which caused Mrs X uncertainty. The Council has agreed to apologise for this.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains that the Council failed to tell her she could claim special guardianship payments and failed to backdate these payments to 2022.
2. Mrs X says she has had to use all her savings to pay for the care of her granddaughter, Y. Mrs X says this has caused her financial distress which has impacted on her wellbeing.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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)
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 the future we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
5. When considering complaints we make findings based on the balance of probabilities. This means that we look at the available relevant evidence and decide what was more likely to have happened.
6. 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)
7. 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

8. I considered evidence provided by Mrs X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
9. 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

Legislation and guidance

Special Guardianship orders

10. Special Guardianship is an order made by the Family Court that places a child or young person to live with someone other than their parent(s) on a long-term basis. The person with whom a child is placed will become the child’s Special Guardian.

Government guidance

11. Government guidance on the Special Guardianship Regulations sets out the circumstances in which councils should provide financial support to a Special Guardian.
12. There is no overall obligation on councils to provide support in every case in which a Special Guardianship Order (SGO) is made.
13. If support is provided, the council must review the arrangements at least once a year.
14. Regulation 17 requires the council to review support plans on a regular basis. This should be at least annually or more frequently if there is a change in circumstances or if the plan specifies a different frequency of review.

The Council’s SGO policy

15. The Council’s policy says that financial support will stop after two years of the start of the SGO (unless previously agreed by the Director of Children's Social Care or unless other events happen sooner, such as the child no longer being in the care of the special guardian).
16. Reviews of the financial allowances will be triggered by the finance team sending out the annual financial statement, or following notification by the carer of a change in circumstances.
17. The review meeting should review the progress of the placement and the special guardianship support plan and ensure that needs are being met, and any financial support previously agreed, is being provided and appropriately reviewed.
18. After an SGO is granted, the SGO carer can contact the Council to ask for an assessment for support.

My investigation

19. Mrs X complains about matters going back to 2017-2022. Despite these happening longer than 12 months before she complained to us, I will still investigate these matters. This is because Mrs X says she only found out she may have been eligible for financial assistance from the Council in 2024 and she complained to us shortly after this.

What happened?

20. Mrs X has been caring for Y for many years. The courts granted an SGO in 2017 after Mrs X paid privately to complete the legal process.
21. In mid-March 2017, the Council finalised a special guardianship support plan for Mrs X and Y. This noted Mrs X could seek support from the SGO team if needed. It also noted that Mrs X said she was not seeking financial support through the SGO. Mrs X signed the SGO support plan and it noted it would be reviewed every year for the first three years.
22. The Council wrote to Mrs X shortly after. It noted it had completed a means tested financial assessment to calculate financial support Mrs X was eligible for Y. The Council said that she was not entitled to special guardianship payments because of income and savings. But, it explained the assessment had triggered her eligibility for a transitional payment. It noted the amounts it would pay Mrs X for a period of 18 months, and then these payments would end.
23. It also explained financial support was now subject to a financial means test assessment which would be reassessed each year. The Council noted that Mrs X could ask for a reassessment at any time, including due to a change in her circumstances or if she felt the original assessment was incorrect.
24. The Council met with Mrs X in December 2024 to complete a financial assessment after asking for financial support. In this financial assessment the Council noted Mrs X was not “aware of thresholds and so didn’t ask for help again until money was all gone, not at £16,000”.
25. In mid-March 2025, following the financial assessment, the Council agreed to make SGO payments to Mrs X. It noted that because the Council did not make the SGO, these payments were not subject to the SGO policy but instead granted at managers discretion and would not be subject to backdating. It also noted the discretionary payments would not be subject to annual review.
26. Mrs X complained to the Council at the end of March that the Council failed to tell her that she could claim SGO payments for Y and she had to use all her savings to support her and Y. Mrs X said she was claiming benefits when she found out in December 2024 that she may have been eligible for financial support from the Council. She noted the Council agreed to backdate these payments to December 2024, but she wanted the Council to backdate to March 2022, when her savings ran out.
27. The Council responded to Mrs X’s stage one complaint in early April. It noted:

• There is no obligation on a council to pay a financial allowance, this is at the discretion of a council. As Mrs X was a private SGO carer, any financial support would be subject to a means tested financial assessment.
• The Council decided in 2017, during a financial assessment that her income and savings were too high to qualify for a financial allowance. As Mrs X was a private special guardian, her case did not remain open to the Council.
• The Council would not have completed a financial assessment as a matter of course, but Mrs X could have asked for one at any time.
• The SGO plan from 2017 noted that Mrs X was not expecting any financial support, and so was aware of the possibility of financial support, especially as there had been financial assessments since this.
• The Council did not uphold Mrs X’s complaint and concluded it had followed the correct procedures and Mrs X was aware of potential financial support. When Mrs X contacted the department some years later, it completed a further financial assessment and agreed to pay an allowance from the date of the assessment.

28. Mrs X was unhappy with the Council’s stage one response and made a stage two complaint in mid-April.
29. The Council responded to Mrs X’s stage two complaint a few days later. It noted it agreed with the stage one response and did not uphold the complaint.

Analysis

The Council failed to tell Mrs X she could claim special guardianship payments

30. Mrs X complained the Council failed to tell her she could claim special guardianship payments. I have seen evidence of financial support being discussed as part of an SGO plan signed by Mrs X in 2017.
31. The Council also provided a copy of a letter it sent to Mrs X following a financial assessment from the same time period. This letter clearly stated that Mrs X could contact the Council should her circumstances change.
32. On balance, I consider that the Council did tell Mrs X that financial support could be available for SGO carers. But, Mrs X would need to contact the Council for a means tested financial assessment. So, there was no fault in the actions of the Council here.
33. However, the SGO support plan noted the Council would review the plan annually for three years. There is no evidence that the Council completed any of these reviews. This was fault, and not in line with guidance. This caused Mrs X uncertainty. While the reviews could have kept Mrs X informed about her rights, we cannot say the outcome would have been any different if the Council had held the reviews. Mrs X could still have contacted the Council about financial assistance when her circumstances changed in 2022.

The Council failed to backdate these payments to 2022

34. It is not the Ombudsman’s role to tell councils exactly how they must calculate individual special guardianship allowances. But – however they choose to do so – we expect them to meet the requirements of regulations and statutory guidance. We also expect a council to explain why it has made a decision.
35. The Council decided to make discretionary payments to Mrs X in 2025, which it backdated to 2024. In making this decision, the Council said these payments were not subject to the SGO policy, but instead granted as managers discretion and so would not be subject to backdating.
36. There was no duty on the Council to make this payment, nor backdate it. The Council has considered Mrs X’s request and fully explained its decision, with reasons as to why it will not backdate it to 2022. This is a decision the Council was entitled to make and one it made without fault.

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Action

37. Within four weeks of our final decision, the Council will:
• apologise to Mrs X for failing to hold annual reviews and the uncertainty this caused. 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.
38. The Council will provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman