Summary: We uphold X’s complaint that the Council failed to consider his complaint within its children statutory complaints’ procedure. The Council has agreed to do so without further delay.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I will call X, says the Council has failed to reply properly to his complaint about contact with his parents, as a looked after child.

Back to top

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).

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

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

Back to top

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. An advocate for X, who is a looked after child, complained in December 2021, about contact with his parents. This subject falls under the Children Act statutory complaints’ procedure. The Council replied in January and February 2022 and set up a contact plan. X now says that plan has not properly worked. He says the contact has been inconsistent, months have been missed and he has turned up for planned contact to find it has not been organised.
11. An investigation is likely to find fault causing the complainant injustice because the Council says it has completed the complaints’ procedure and is not suitable for a stage two. There is no evidence the events since February 2022 have been replied to, the reply in early 2022 does not mention the statutory process, and this is about a subject matter which is specifically stated to be within the statutory complaints’ process.

Back to top

Agreed action

12. The Council has agreed within one month of this decision to:
• Complete a stage one investigation and write to X to inform him of the outcome, ensuring it provides him appropriate information about his rights under the process.

Back to top

Final decision

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

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman