Summary: Miss B complained about excessive delay by the Council in completing the statutory complaints process and its failure to implement the agreed recommendations. We found fault in the Council’s failure to implement the recommendations in full and its poor communication with Miss B in respect of these actions. The Council has agreed to apologise, pay her the agreed £5,000 plus an additional £500 for the continued delay, offer to meet with her and send her an appropriate outcome letter she can show to prospective employers. We have also recommended some service improvements.

The complaint

1. Miss B complained that East Riding of Yorkshire Council (the Council) in respect of her complaint about children’s services, failed to implement the agreed actions following the stage three review panel and the Director’s letter of 3 June 2021. This has caused Miss B frustration, distress and financial hardship as she does not have a letter of explanation for her employer.

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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. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I have considered the complaint and the documents provided by the complainant, made enquiries of the Council and considered the comments and documents the Council provided. Miss B and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.
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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What I found

Statutory complaints procedure

6. 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.
7. The first stage of the procedure is local resolution. Councils have up to 20 working days to respond.
8. 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.
9. 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

10. Miss B first complained to the Council in March 2015. The Council sent her its stage two response in November 2016. In 2017 Mrs B complained to us about the process and in June 2017 we issued a decision finding fault with the Council for not arranging a stage three review panel in accordance with the statutory procedure and asked it to do so as soon as possible.
11. In September 2017 the stage three review panel decided the previous stage two investigation was inadequate and the Council restarted the stage two investigation.
12. The Council appointed an Investigating Officer (IO) and an Independent Person (IP) in February 2018 and the stage two report was issued on 10 August 2019, largely upholding the complaint. In February 2021 the stage three panel upheld all elements of the complaint except one where it made no finding. It said the delay in this case had been exceptional and unwarranted. It recommended paying Miss B a total of £5,000.It recognised the amount was far in excess of the usual LGSCO guidance but noted that the guidance allowed for higher payments in exceptional cases and considered this was an exceptional case.
13. On 3 June 2021, the Council sent its final letter to Miss B apologising for the excessive delay in completing the complaints process. It accepted the practice in the case fell below the standard the Council would expect and as a consequence Miss B and her family had suffered upset and distress. It agreed to write to Miss B with a separate apology for the poor practice in the events leading to the complaint and for the complaint handling.
14. It agreed to share the learning from the case across children’s services and to place an outcome letter on her children’s case records. It said it included an understanding of what constitutes a mental illness in the continued professional development for all staff and ongoing training.
15. Miss B had requested the Council provide her with a letter for prospective employers when applying for work as it recognise that her employment prospects had been adversely affected by her involvement with children’s services. The Council said it hoped the outcome of the process would be of use to her in discussing the issue with prospective employers.
16. In respect of the specific recommendations the Review Panel had made, it agreed to those in respect of training for social workers and the customer relations team. It also agreed to review the guidance and support for IOs and IPs as part of the investigation process.
17. It agreed with the Panel’s recommendation to pay Miss B a total of £5,000 to recognise the avoidable distress and time and trouble she had experienced.
18. The Council made no further contact with Miss B. She rang the Council on 27 October 2021 and asked to speak to a manager as she had not heard anything since June 2021. The Council tried to call on 28 October 2021 but was unsuccessful, so it sent an email on 2 November 2021. Miss B replied on 9 November 2021. She said the letter had not been sent by recorded delivery as promised and she received two copies on different paper. She said there were no timescales mentioned for the agreed actions and she would have raised her concerns sooner, but she had been very unwell with COVID19.
19. The Council called Miss B back on 18 November 2021. The note of the call says:

“Asked [Miss B] if she wanted to accept the payment remedy or will she be going to the LGO. She does not accept the payment remedy; she wants to go down the legal route and not the LGO. She does not feel the amount offered is enough; she feels the desired outcome from the panel report have not been progressed and wants to know:

• When someone will be meeting with her to go through the amendments.
• When individual departments will be written to, with the outcome of the complaint.
• When she will receive a letter she can produce when required eg for future employers.”
1. There is no further record of contact until Miss B requested a copy of the stage two report in January 2022. Miss B complained to us in April 2022.
2. Miss B said to me she did not tell the Council she was unhappy with the payment, she just wanted to seek advice about how to get the Council to implement all the recommendations. She had expected a meeting with them a proper action plan for when things would be done. She said the payment would have made a real difference to her life and she is in severe financial difficulties.
3. In response to my enquiries the Council has provided information showing it has taken steps to implement the recommendations in respect of social worker’s understanding of mental illness and improved guidance for IOs. The electronic case records also refer to the complaint outcome letter. It has not paid Miss B the £5000.

Analysis

23. The Council accepted at the conclusion of the complaints process that its practice had been poor in both the events leading to the complaint and the complaint-handling. I agree the delays in completing the complaints process were exceptional: to take seven years to put a complaint through the three stages is excessive and unwarranted.
24. I welcome the Council’s acknowledgement of this fault and its agreement to the large payment of £5,000 to remedy the injustice caused to Miss B over such a long period, along with improvements to its social work practice and complaint-handling.
25. But my welcome ends there. The Council has inexplicably failed to implement the agreed recommendations, failed to produce an action plan with a timescale for doing so, failed to contact Miss B to inform her of the timescale, offer her a meeting as she expected or discuss her expectation that she would receive a letter for prospective employers. This is fault which greatly exacerbates an already exceptional situation.
26. To rely on a brief telephone call with the customer relations team, the content of which is disputed, to justify taking no further action, is also fault. At the very least I would have expected the Council to follow this up with a letter from, or meeting with a senior manager in the relevant department to ensure Miss B fully understood what was being offered and what she was declining.
27. Miss B has been caused significant additional distress, frustration and financial hardship, along with time and trouble in having to complain to us.

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Agreed action

28. To recognise the injustice Miss B has been caused I recommended the Council:
29. within one month of the date of my final decision:
• sends her a formal written apology;
• pays Miss B £5,000 plus an additional £500;
• offers to meet with Miss B if she wishes; and
• sends her a letter which she can show to any prospective employers as explanation for her prolonged contact with children’s services;
30. within three months of the date of my final decision:
• ensures an action plan with timescales, is produced after the completion of every statutory complaint which completes the process;
• introduces a monitoring system to ensure the recommendations are implemented: and
• if delays or problems occur in implementing recommendations the case is referred promptly to a senior manager for action.
31. The Council has agreed to my recommendations.

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Final decision

32. I consider this is a proportionate way of putting right the injustice caused to Miss B and I have completed my investigation on this basis.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman