Summary: The Council is at fault for delaying consideration of this complaint under the children’s statutory complaints procedure. The Council has agreed to complete its investigation at stage two of the procedure and to make a payment to the complainant for the time and trouble its delay has caused.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will call Mr X, complains on behalf of his mother about a lack of support being provided to her and her grandchild who has complex need. Mr X complained to the Ombudsman that the Council had delayed issuing a response to her complaint under the statutory complaints procedure.

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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 the complainant and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
6. The complainant had the opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered their comments before making a final 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 that it had failed to provide adequate support to his mother and her grandchild. The Council responded at stage one of the statutory complaints procedure, but Mr X was dissatisfied so in August 2021, he requested it be progressed to stage two. The Council accepts it did not progress Mr X’s complaint as it should have done.

Analysis

12. The Council’s failure to respond to Mr X’s complaint at stage two of the statutory complaints procedure is fault which has caused him a significant delay in receiving answers to questions that he raised and has also caused him frustration by the delay.

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Agreed action

13. The Council has agreed to progress Mr X’s complaint to stage two of the statutory complaints procedure without delay and provide him with a response within the statutory timeframe.
14. The Council has also agreed that within one month of the date of my final decision, it will offer to make a payment of £200 to Mr X to remedy the time and trouble he has gone to pursuing his complaint and to reflect the delay in the Council dealing with the complaint.

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Final decision

15. We uphold this complaint with a finding of fault leading to an injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman