Summary: The Council is not at fault in taking seven months to offer self-contained accommodation to Mr X. The Council is at fault as it failed to escalate Mr X’s complaint to stage two of the children’s social care complaints procedure but this did not cause significant injustice to Mr X.

The complaint

1. Ms Y complains on behalf of Mr X. Mr X complains that the Council:
1. is not meeting his needs as it has not provided self-contained accomdation despite Mr X being ready to live independently and offered accommodation that he could not afford. This has caused distress to Mr X as he considers shared accomodation to be unistuable due to his medical condition.
2. delayed in dealing with his complaint and refused to escalate it to stage two of the complaints procedure.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We cannot question whether a council’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
3. 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

4. I have:
• Considered the complaint and the information provided by Ms Y on behalf of Mr X;
• Made enquiries of the Council and considered the information provided;
• Invited Mr X and Ms Y and the Council to comment on the draft decision.

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What I found

Children’s social care complaints procedure.

5. The law sets out a three stage procedure for councils to follow when looking at complaints about children’s social care services. At stage two of this procedure, the Council appoints an Investigating Officer and an Independent Person (who is responsible for overseeing the investigation). If a complainant is unhappy with the outcome of the stage two investigation, they can ask for a stage three review.
6. The statutory guidance for children’s social care complaints provides that once a complaint has entered stage one, the local authority is obliged to ensure that the complaint proceeds to stages two and three of the procedure if that is the complainant’s wish. The local authority can only consider an early referral to the Ombudsman, in discussion with the complainant, after the conclusion of the stage two if it considers stage three will not produce a demonstrably different outcome.

Young People’s Pathways

7. The Council’s Young People’s Pathways aims to support the needs of homeless young people who have support needs with a view to them eventually settling in their own council flat. The pathway has three stages: assessment, progress and move through. The level of support provided decreases as the young person moves through the stages. The young person must complete all three stages, including the steps to independence and AQA programmes before they can be nominated for a council tenancy. This is to ensure the young person can manage independent living and maintain a tenancy.

What happened

8. Mr X is a care leaver. In 2018, the Council decided Mr X was ready to move to the move through stage of the pathway but he could only do so when he had completed the steps to independence and AQA programs at the progress stage. At this time Mr X shared a room with a number of others. The Council has said Mr X was frustrated about having to complete the modules so it convened a meeting with him in July 2018. Officer A, personal advisor, explained why he needed to complete them.
9. In September 2018, the Council held a further meeting with Mr X to consider a comprehensive plan for all areas of his life. The Council has said that at this meeting officer A confirmed Mr X had completed the AQAs and steps to independence modules for the progress stage. So, officer A would refer Mr X to the move through stage and for low support accommodation. Mr X told the Council he wanted to live in specific accommodation as he had friends there. The Council made a referral to Mr X’s preferred accommodation but there were no places available.
10. In November 2018 Mr X told the Council he wanted to be placed in self-contained accommodation due to his medical condition. The Council has said that normally self-contained rooms were reserved for people who had been at the move through stage for some time and shown their independence at this level. Nevertheless, the Council agreed to Mr X’s request but could not allocate a room to him as there were a limited number of self-contained rooms and none were available. The Council offered accommodation to Mr X where he would share with one other person. Mr X refused this offer so remained on the waiting list for self-contained accommodation.
11. Officer A had a further meeting with Mr X in January 2019. The Council has said officer A advised Mr X that the waiting time for self-contained accommodation was unknown. Mr X asked to be nominated for a council flat rather than self- contained accommodation through the pathway. Officer A advised this was not possible as it would bypass the move through step in the pathway and he did not consider Mr X was ready to be nominated to a council flat.
12. The Council arranged a review of Mr X’s pathway plan in March 2019. However, officer A could not attend so the meeting was cancelled. Officer A reviewed Mr X’s plan to discuss with him at a meeting in April 2019 but Mr X cancelled this meeting as he did not want to engage with officer A any longer. At a further meeting officer A suggested Mr X could move into shared room at his preferred accommodation until self -contained room became available. Mr X declined this offer.
13. The Council has said officer A continued to pursue a self-contained room at Mr X’s preferred accommodation. In June 2019, the Council offered self-contained accommodation to Mr X. He declined the room as he would have to pay bills which he considered he could not afford. Mr X asked the Council to contribute towards the bills. The Council advised Mr X it does not contribute to bills and the accommodation mirrored situation he would face in his own Council flat as he where he would have to pay his own bills.
14. Due to Mr X’s concern about paying bills, the Council offered a shared room with bills included. Mr X declined the offer. The Council became concerned for Mr X’s mental health at this time and referred him to support services.
15. On 11 June 2019 Ms Y made a complaint on Mr X’s behalf at stage one of the Children’s statutory complaints procedure. Ms Y said Mr X was not happy with his current accommodation as it did not meet his medical needs and he should have been allocated his own accommodation as he had completed the steps to independence. Mr X requested a new personal advisor.
16. The Council responded to Ms Y on 16 July 2019. The Council did not uphold Mr X’s complaint but it agreed to allocate a new personal advisor to him.
17. Ms Y requested Mr X’s complaint be escalated to stage two of the complaint procedure. The Council refused to escalate the complaint as it had provided a new personal advisor for Mr X. The Council said it could not achieve the outcome Mr X was seeking as he needed to complete the move through stage of the pathway.
18. Mr X accepted the self-contained room in September 2019 which the Council had previously offered in June 2019.
19. Mr X’s pathway plan of March 2020 notes Mr X has now completed the steps to independence and AQAs at the move through stage. The Council has said Mr X is currently going through the process of nomination for a Council property. Once competed Mr X will be able to bid for a property.

My assessment

20. The Council took seven months to offer self-contained accommodation to Mr X. On balance, I do not consider the amount of time take to offer the self-contained accommodation to be fault. The Council has a limited supply of self- contained accommodation in its Young Person’s Pathway. It managed Mr X expectations by advising him it had a limited supply and it could not tell him when it would be able to offer self contained accommodation. The Council also continued to check the availability of self-contained accommodation.
21. The Council offered alternative accommodation to Mr X when it could not immediately provide self-contained accommodation which he could occupy while waiting for self-contained. This was shared accommodation but with fewer people than Mr X was sharing with.
22. There is no evidence of fault in the Council’s decision not to nominate Mr X for a council tenancy during this time. Mr X had not completed the Young Person’s Pathway at that time so he was not entitled to be nominated for a council tenancy.
23. The Council offered self-contained accommodation to Mr X in June 2019. Mr X initially refused the accommodation as he would have to pay bills. The Council is not at fault in making this offer. It has explained it expects people to pay bills in order to foster independence and to reflect they will have to pay bills when living in their own flat. The Council offered alternative accommodation when Mr X refused the offer. I understand Mr X accepted the offer of the self-contained accommodation in September 2019.
24. So, in the circumstances, I am satisfied the took appropriate action to meet Mr X’s preferences for his accommodation as far as it could and the seven month wait to be allocated self-contained accommodation does not amount to fault.

Complaint

25. The statutory guidance provides the Council should respond to complaints at stage one of the children’s social care complaints procedure within 10 working days. The Council took 25 days. This is fault but the delay was not so significant as to cause injustice to Mr X.
26. The Council is also at fault for not investigating Mr X’s complaint at stage two of the complaints procedure. The statutory guidance provides councils must escalate a complaint to stage two at the request of the complainant. So, the Council did not have the discretion to refuse to escalate Mr X’s complaint to stage two. The Council can only consider making an early referral on the grounds the outcome would not be demonstrably different at the conclusion of stage two. I acknowledge the Councils failure to escalate the complaint to stage two will have caused some frustration to Mr X. But this is not sufficient injustice to warrant further action from the Council.

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Final decision

27. The Council is not at fault in taking seven months to offer self-contained accommodation to Mr X. The Council is at fault as it failed to escalate Mr X’s complaint to stage two of the children’s social care complaints procedure but this did not cause significant injustice to Mr X. I am therefore minded to complete my investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman