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

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I will call Mr X, complains about the actions of the Council’s children services team and delays in concluding his 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 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).

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
6. Mr X had the opportunity to comment on a draft version of this decision.

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My assessment

The statutory complaints 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. Mr X complained to the Council about the children services actions in assessing and supporting his family in July 2020. The Council replied at stage one of the Children Act 1989 statutory complaints procedure in September 2020. Mr X requested it be escalated before October 2020 in writing. The Council provided its stage two reply at the end of March 2021. This should have been completed at the latest within 65 working days.
12. Mr X requested an escalation to stage three but said he needed time to submitt the details. He did so at the end of July 2021. He says he provided many dates in the next five weeks to arrange a review panel. The review panel should have been convened within 30 working days. It seems the Council did not start doing so until after that time period had elapsed. It then proposed two days in October 2021 which Mr X could not attend. It is not clear if the Council checked his available dates before contacting other attendees.
13. An investigation is likely to conclude the Council’s failure to comply with the statutory complaints scheme is fault which has caused Mr X some time and trouble

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Agreed action

14. The Council has agreed within 65 working days of the date of my final decision to:
• Convene a stage three review panel having obtained Mr X availability and then issue the review panel’s findings five working days thereafter, and the Council’s response within a further 15 working days.
• Pay Mr X £125 to reflect the delays in the complaints’ process so far.

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Final decision

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

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman