Summary: We uphold Ms X’s complaint, the Council failed to consider her complaint within its children statutory complaints’ procedure. The Council has agreed to complete the stage two without further delay.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I will call Ms X, says the Council has failed to reply properly to a complaint made to it, in March 2022, about children services’ actions.

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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 Ms X and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
6. I considered Ms X’s comments 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. An advocate for Mr X, who is a former looked after child, complained at the end of March 2021, about children services actions, including Pathway Plan support and Education Health and Care Plan matters. The Council replied in mid May 2021 in its corporate complaints’ procedure.
12. Mr X’s advocate asked for the complaint to be escalated to stage two a month later. They said the stage one reply had not been adequate. The Council replied at stage two of its corporate procedure in early August 2021. In September, the advocate asked for the complaint to be considered in the children’s statutory complaints’ procedure.
13. Then there was a change of advocates. Ms X took over.
14. In December 2021, the Council replied to the request for a statutory complaint. It refused. It said that as some matters fell outside the statutory required scheme the Council had decided to consider all matters within the corporate scheme. It says the June stage two request did not plainly state the Pathway Plan.
15. An investigation is likely to conclude the Council’s refusal to carry out a statutory stage two investigation is fault. It has the power to include none statutory matters within that scheme, but it has to reply to statutory matters within the statutory scheme. Pathway Plans fall within the statutory scheme. The June stage two request covers the stage one reply generally. It does not exclude the Pathway Plan complaint.

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Agreed action

16. The Council has agreed within 65 working days of my final decision to:
• Complete a 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.
• Make a payment to Ms X for £100 to reflect the delays so far.

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Final decision

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

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman