Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of Miss X’s concerns about the care of her child. An investigation by us is unlikely to achieve significantly more than the Council has already done or lead to a different outcome.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains Council has not properly recognised her child, Y’s, disabilities in its care planning, and of how the Council has properly managed contact arrangements between her and Y.
2. Miss X complains is not satisfied with the outcomes of the statutory children’s complaints procedure and complains about the Council’s complaints handling.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide further investigation would not lead to a different outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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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.

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My assessment

6. The law sets out a three-stage procedure for councils to follow when looking at complaints about some children’s social care services. The Council considered Miss X’s complaints at all three stages of this process.
7. If a complaint has already been through the three-stage statutory children’s complaints procedure, this means the complainant has already had access to an independent investigation. It is not our role to re-investigate, unless there were flaws in the earlier investigation which affected the result. I have not seen evidence of defects in the investigation that warrant further investigation.
8. The stage three independent review panel made recommendations including symbolic payment to Miss X and Y and a review of some of the Council’s processes. The Council agreed to the recommendations. An investigation is unlikely to lead to a different outcome.
9. It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we decide not to investigate the substantive issue.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because we are unlikely to achieve a significantly different outcome to the Council’s response within its Children Act statutory complaints’ procedure.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman