Summary: The Council is at fault for delaying consideration of this complaint at stage one of the children’s statutory complaints procedure. The Council has agreed to consider the complaint at stage one of the procedure without further delay.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will call Ms X, complains about a lack of support from the Council’s children’s services and that she was placed in inappropriate accommodation with the support of children’s services.

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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 the complainant and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
6. The complainant has had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision.

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My assessment

The statutory complains procedure

7. 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.
8. The first stage of the procedure is local resolution. Councils have up to 20 working days to respond. Discussions should take place between the Council and complainant to try and resolve the complaint as soon as possible. Complaints can be progressed straight to stage two, but only if both parties are in agreement.
9. 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.
10. 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

11. Ms X complained to the Council via her advocate who requested her complaint be progressed straight to stage two of the statutory complaint’s procedure. The Council asked exactly how Ms X felt she was unsupported and the outcome she was seeking. No response was received so the complaint was not progressed.

Analysis

12. The Council should have issued a stage 1 response to Ms X within 20 days. It didn’t and this is fault. Whilst I note that the Council did not receive a response in relation to its questions, I also note that it did not pursue a response.

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Agreed action

13. The Council has agreed to reopen Ms X’s complaint and consider it under stage one of the statutory complaints procedure without further delay.

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Final decision

14. We uphold this complaint with a finding of fault.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman