Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s Children’s Service. That is because the Council has agreed to follow the Children Act statutory complaints’ procedure.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained about the support the council provided her as a Looked After Child (LAC). She said she was unhappy with how the Council responded to her complaint.

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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 provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we are satisfied with the actions an organisation has taken or proposes to take. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(7), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. 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.
6. The first stage of the procedure is local resolution. Councils have up to 20 working days to respond.
7. 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 investigating officer (IO) to look into the complaint and an independent person (IP) who is responsible for overseeing the investigation and ensuring its independence.
8. If we were to investigate Miss X’s complaint it is likely we would find fault. That is because the Council has not considered her complaint through the children’s statutory process.
9. To its credit, the Council has agreed to write to Miss X and offer to consider her complaint at stage two of this process. It will write to her within two weeks of our final decision. I am satisfied with the action the Council has agreed to take it appropriate; therefore, we will not investigate this complaint.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because the Council has agreed to offer Miss X a stage two investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman