Cumbria County Council (21 016 960)

Category : Children's care services > Other

Decision : Upheld

Decision date : 23 Jun 2022

The Ombudsman's final decision:

Summary: Ms X complained the Council delayed investigating her complaints at stage 2 of the children’s statutory complaints procedure. The Council has delayed by eight months in going to stage 2. It should apologise, pay Mrs X £240 and move without further delay to stage 2.

The complaint

  1. Ms X complains the Council delayed in investigating her complaints at stage 2 of the children’s statutory complaints procedures.
  2. She says that as a result, she is not receiving enough contact with her niece which is causing distress and frustration.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

  1. 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)
  2. If we are satisfied with an organisation’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)
  3. 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

  1. I read Ms X’s complaint and spoke with her about it on the phone.
  2. 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 .
  3. Ms X and the Council had the opportunity to comment on the draft decision.

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What I found

The children’s statutory complaints procedure

  1. There is a formal procedure, set out in law, which councils must follow to investigate certain complaints about children’s services. The procedure aims to ensure concerns are resolved swiftly and, wherever possible, by the people who provide the service locally.
  2. 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.
  3. The children’s statutory complaints procedure involves three stages:
    • Stage 1 - Local resolution by the council. This should take two weeks with a further two weeks for more complex complaints;
    • Stage 2 – an investigation by an investigating officer not involved in the service who will prepare a detailed report and findings. The investigation is overseen by an independent person to ensure its impartiality. This stage should take 25 days or 65 days for complex cases; and
    • Stage 3 – an independent panel to consider any outstanding issues. This 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.
  4. Section 3.1.5 of the Guidance says: “Where a complaint is accepted at Stage 1, the complainant is entitled to pursue their complaint further through the procedure, except in the case of cross boundary issues. In all other instances, once a complaint has entered Stage 1, the local authority is obliged to ensure that the complaint proceeds to stage 2 and 3 of this procedure if that is the complainant’s wish.”

What happened

  1. In February 2021, Ms X made a complaint to the Council about contact arrangements with her niece.
  2. The Council refused to investigate Ms X’s complaints because it said the matter was the subject to court proceedings.
  3. Ms X complained to the Ombudsman. After we contacted the Council, it agreed it should accept the complaint because Ms X had not started legal action. We closed the case on 10 June 2021.
  4. The Council considered Ms X’s complaint at stage 1 of the statutory complaints procedures and issued a response on 2 September 2021.
  5. Ms X asked for the Council to escalate her complaint to stage 2. The Council agreed to do so but since then, it has not started the investigation. It says this is because it has struggled to recruit investigators. It says it is now in the position to begin the investigation.

My findings

  1. The Council took around 12 weeks to complete stage 1 of the process. Even assuming this was a complex case which required four weeks to complete, this is a delay of eight weeks and is fault.
  2. Ms X requested her complaint go to stage 2 immediately. To date, eight months later, this stage has not started. This is a significant delay and is fault. This has caused Ms X frustration and unnecessary time and trouble.
  3. I note the Council’s comments that it has, and continues to have, problems recruiting investigating officers. However, the guidance, which is statutory, specifies clear timescales for completing the children's statutory complaints process.

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Agreed actions

  1. Within one month of the date of the final decision, the Council has agreed to:
    • apologise to Ms X for the delays;
    • pay her £240 as an acknowledgement of the eight month delay in proceeding to stage 2 of the children’s statutory complaints procedures and the frustration and time and trouble this has caused her; and
    • start stage 2 of the statutory procedures. If there are further delays, the Council should consider at either stage 2 or stage 3 of the statutory procedures whether a further financial payment is appropriate to remedy the injustice caused by these further delays.

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Final decision

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

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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