Summary: We uphold Mrs X’s complaint that the Council delayed in considering her complaint within its children statutory complaints’ procedure. The Council has agreed to pay Mrs X for the injustice caused.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I will call Mrs X, complains the Council failed to reply to her complaint about not reviewing a child in need assessment.

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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 Mrs X 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. Mrs X complained in June 2022 about children services’ actions, in particular a failure to review a child in need assessment. The Council did not reply until October 2022.
11. An investigation is likely to find fault causing Mrs X an injustice because the delay in replying means the Council has failed to meet the requirements of the statutory Children Act complaints’ procedure.

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Agreed action

12. The Council has agreed to:
• Pay Mrs X £75 for the delays so far.

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Final decision

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

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman