Summary: Mrs Y complains the Council improperly referred her family for a safeguarding investigation following allegations against her partner. She says the allegations were unfounded and the way the Council went about the matter caused distress. The Ombudsman does not find fault in how the Council managed the referral.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I refer to as Mrs Y, complains as social worker from the Council referred her family to its safeguarding team following allegations against her partner. She says the social worker did not properly look into the allegations before making the referral and passed on unsubstantiated information to her professional regulator. She says this caused distress. Mrs Y wants the Council to provide more information about what its concerns were and she is concerned the Council has not taken disciplinary action against the social worker.

Back to top

What I have investigated

2. I have investigated Mrs Y’s concerns about how the Council dealt with the referral to safeguarding. I have not investigated what information was passed to Mrs Y’s regulator or how the Council considered whether to take disciplinary action, for the reasons outlined in the final two paragraphs of this statement.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We cannot question whether a council’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
4. We cannot investigate a complaint if it is about a personnel issue. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5a, paragraph 4, as amended)
5. If we are satisfied with a council’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

6. I considered the information Mrs Y provided and spoke to her about the complaint, then made enquiries of the Council. I sent a copy of my draft decision to Mrs Y and the Council for their comments.

Back to top

What I found

Statutory Guidance

7. The Department for Education has produced statutory guidance named ‘Working together to safeguard children’ (“the Guidance”). The Guidance says: ‘Anyone who has concerns about a child’s welfare should make a referral to local authority children’s social care and should do so immediately if there is a concern that the child is suffering significant harm or is likely to do so.’

Background

8. In late 2020, Mrs Y was involved in trying to help facilitate contact with a family member. As part of this, the Council’s social services team was in contact with Mrs Y and other members of the family.
9. The allocated social worker received information that said Mrs Y’s partner was an alcoholic. The social worker made a referral to the Council’s safeguarding team due to concerns about the impact on Mrs Y’s child. The safeguarding team investigated and did not substantiate any concerns.
10. Mrs Y complained about the way the social worker handled the referral. She said the social worker spoke to her child’s nursery manager and obtained information in an unethical way. Also, that the social worker did not find out whether there was any basis to the allegations before making the referral. Mrs Y said the social worker wrote that her partner was a ‘known’ alcoholic and suggested this should have said ‘alleged’.
11. The Council investigated and upheld Mrs Y’s complaint. It said it would have expected the social worker to make more enquiries to establish whether the allegation came from a credible source before making the safeguarding referral. It also said the nursery manager should have made the referral rather than the social worker, as they were the person who held the information.
12. Mrs Y asks the Council to provide further information about what its concerns were and why it labelled her partner an alcoholic.

Findings

13. I can see the Council upheld Mrs Y’s complaint as it would have been best practice for the social worker to make further enquiries before a referral and to ask the nursery manager to make a referral. However, I can only investigate whether there is administrative fault in the Council’s actions. In this case, I do not find the concerns the Council upheld as part of its complaint procedure, meet the threshold for me to find fault.
14. If the social worker made further enquiries before making a referral, it may have helped the safeguarding team with their investigation, provided it did not lead to a long delay in her reporting the concerns. But the safeguarding team would have needed to make its own enquiries and/or judgement either way. This a best practice consideration for the Council and not something I can find is fault. The Guidance is clear that anyone who has concerns should report them in a timely way. An individual raised concerns with the social worker and she reported these to the safeguarding team. I cannot find fault in her doing so.
15. I also cannot say that it was fault for the social worker to make the referral rather than the nursery manager. Once the social worker was made aware of concerns, she had as much responsibility to report them as any other professional. Whether she did so directly, or asked the nursery manager to do so, makes no difference to how the referral was considered, investigated or the outcome.
16. I cannot make a finding of fault based on the specific wording of the social worker’s referral. The social worker reported concerns that had been raised to her and it was for the safeguarding team to investigate. It did so and did not find any substantiated concerns, so again the wording of the referral would not have made any difference to the procedure or the outcome.
17. Mrs Y has asked for more information about what the Council’s concerns were. I cannot see any suggestion the social worker raised concerns beyond what the Council has already set out to Mrs Y. I understand it will have been distressing for Mrs Y and her partner to be the subject of a safeguarding investigation. However, I have not found fault in how that investigation took place so cannot recommend any further remedy following on from this.

Back to top

Final decision

18. The Council is not at fault in how it managed the referral to its safeguarding team.

Back to top

Parts of the complaint that I did not investigate

19. I have not investigated what information the Council passed to Mrs Y’s professional regulator. This is because the regulator conducts independent investigations into regulatory matters and has its own powers to require disclosure of information from relevant persons. I cannot make a decision about what information any person, including any council professional, should or should not provide as part of any referral, or in response to enquiries from the regulator.
20. I have also not investigated whether the Council should have taken any disciplinary action against the social worker involved as we cannot investigate personnel issues.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman