Summary: We uphold Ms X’s complaint, as the Council delayed considering a complaint at stage two of the children’s statutory complaints procedure. The Council has agreed to complete its stage two investigation without further delay and make a payment for the delay so far.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I will call Ms X, complains about the actions of the Council’s children services team. Ms X asked the Council to escalate her complaint to stage two of the Children Act statutory complaints’ procedure but it has not completed this stage.

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 Ms X and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
6. Ms X has an opportunity to comment on a draft version of this decision.

Back to top

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.
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. The Council first replied to Ms X’s complaint that the Council had failed to meet her child’s complex needs in August 2020. Ms X sent a detailed reply, asking for the complaint to be escalated to Stage Two of the Council’s children services complaints procedure. The Council say it received this in October 2020. The Stage Two reply has still not been provided. It should have been completed by the end of January 2021.

Back to top

Agreed action

12. The Council has agreed within 65 workings days of the date of my final decision to:
• Complete its stage two investigation and write to Ms X to inform her of the outcome, ensuring it provides her appropriate information about her rights under the process.
• To pay Ms X £250 to remedy the time and trouble she has gone to pursuing the complaint and to reflect the delay in the Council dealing with her complaint so far.

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