Summary: We have upheld this complaint because the Council delayed consideration of a complaint at stage two of the children’s statutory complaints procedure. The Council has agreed to resolve the complaint early by providing an appropriate remedy for the injustice caused to the complainant.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will call Ms X, complains about the actions of the Council’s children’s services in relation to her and her children. Ms X complained to the Ombudsman after the Council failed to respond to her complaint at stage two if the children’s 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.

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My assessment

The 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. In June 2021, Ms X complained to the Council in which she raised several concerns about the involvement of its children’s services with her and her children. Dissatisfied with its response at stage one of the statutory complaints procedure she asked the Council to escalate her complaint to stage two. In May 2022, Ms X complained to the Council that it had not provided a stage two response and raised other issues about the actions of its children’s services.

Analysis

11. If we investigated this complaint, it is likely we would find the Council at fault because it failed to progress Ms X’s complaint to stage two of the statutory complaints procedure. This has caused a delay of over a year in providing Ms X with answers to the questions she raised.
12. We therefore asked the Council to consider remedying the injustice this caused Ms X by appointing an investigator and completing its investigation without further delay, providing Ms X with appropriate information about her rights under the process.
13. We also recommended that within a month, the Council offer to make a payment to Ms X of £300 to remedy the time and trouble she has been to pursuing her complaint and to reflect the significant delay in providing her with a stage two response.
14. To its credit, the Council agreed to resolve the complaint and will appoint an investigator and offer to make the payment to Ms X within one month of the date of this decision.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman