Summary: Miss X complained the Council wrongly refused to allow her to escalate her complaints to stage 2 of the children’s statutory complaints procedures. The Council was at fault when it refused to go to stage 2 of the procedures. This caused Miss X avoidable frustration and time and trouble coming to the Ombudsman. It has agreed to apologise, pay Miss X £100 and move without further delay to stage 2. It has also agreed to carry out service improvements.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained the Council refused to escalate her complaints to stage 2 of the children’s statutory complaints procedure.
2. Miss X said that this caused her frustration particularly because she is still waiting for some of the matters she complained about to be resolved.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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)
4. 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)
5. Under the information sharing agreement between the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman and the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted), we will share this decision with Ofsted.

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How I considered this complaint

6. I read Miss X’s complaint and spoke with her about it on the phone.
7. I considered the relevant law, the children’s complaints procedure statutory guidance - Children's social care: getting the best from complaints, and our Guidance for practitioners on the children’s statutory complaints process .
8. I wrote to Miss X and the Council with my draft decision and considered their comments before I made my final decision.

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What I found

The children’s statutory complaints procedure

9. There is a formal procedure, set out in law, which councils must follow to investigate certain complaints about children’s services. This is the children’s statutory complaints procedure (CSCPs). The procedure aims to ensure concerns are resolved swiftly and, wherever possible, by the people who provide the service locally.
10. Statutory guidance (the Guidance) provides details of what may form the subject of a complaint under this procedure. This includes all local authority functions within Part 3 of the Children’s Act 1989, which sets out the services councils must provide for children and their families in their area. The Guidance says a complaint may arise because of many things such as an unwelcome or disputed decision, concerns about the appropriateness or quality of a service, the impact on a child or young person of the application of a local authority policy or delivery or non-delivery of services including complaints procedures.
11. The children’s statutory complaints procedure involves three stages:
• Stage 1 - Local resolution by the council. This should take 10 days with a further 10 days for more complex complaints.
• Stage 2 – an investigation by an independent investigating officer not involved in the service who will prepare a detailed report and findings. This stage should take 25 days or 65 days for complex cases.
• Stage 3 – an independent panel to consider their outstanding issues. It should take 30 days to convene and hold the review panel and 5 days for the panel to issue its findings. The Council then has 15 days to respond to those findings.
12. Where a council accepts a complaint under the CSCPs, the complainant is entitled to pursue their complaint further through the procedures to stage 2 and stage 3 if that is their wish.

What happened

13. In mid-October 2021, Miss X complained to the Council about matters relating to her children and the involvement of children’s social services. The complaints fell under the CSCPs.
14. The Council considered Miss X’s complaint and responded in late October.
15. Miss X was unhappy with the Council’s response and in early November, she asked it to escalate her complaints to stage two.
16. The Council refused and so Miss X complained to the Ombudsman.
17. In its response to us, the Council said it did not consider it should go to stage two because:
• Miss X had made no objection to three of the Council’s responses to the seven complaints she made;
• of the four responses Miss X objected to, one was about matters outside its control, and no worthwhile investigation was possible for the other three;
• Miss X’s outcomes could not be achieved; and
• in all its responses, the Council had apologised for any stress or inconvenience and made suggestions about working together in the future.

My findings

18. The Guidance states that when a Council has considered a complaint under the CSCPs, it must proceed to stages two and three if that is what the complainant wishes. The Council’s refusal to do so, therefore, was fault. This led to a delay in progressing Miss X’s complaint, which caused her avoidable frustration. It also meant she had to bring her complaint to the Ombudsman which caused her unnecessary time and trouble.

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Agreed actions

19. Within one month of the date of the final decision the Council has agreed to:
• apologise to Miss X for the frustration caused by its refusal to escalate her complaints to stage two;
• pay her £100 as an acknowledgement of the frustration the delay caused her and her time and trouble in coming to us; and
• start stage 2 of the statutory procedures. If there are further delays, the Council should consider at either stage two or stage three of the statutory procedures whether a suitable financial payment is appropriate to remedy the injustice caused by these delays.
20. Within three months of the date of the final decision the Council has agreed to remind relevant staff of its legal obligations under the statutory children’s complaints procedures, in particular its obligations to carry out a stage two investigation and the limited circumstances in which early referrals to the Ombudsman can be requested.

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Final decision

21. There was fault leading to injustice. The Council has agreed to my recommendations. Therefore, I have completed my investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman