Summary: We have upheld this complaint because the Council failed to use the children’s statutory complaints procedure when considering a complaint about the treatment of a foster carer. The Council has now agreed to resolve the complaint by completing a stage two investigation using this procedure.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will call Mrs X, complains about how she was treated in her role as a foster carer.

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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.
10. The statutory guidance says that If a complaint has entered stage one the local authority is obliged to ensure the complaint proceeds to stages two and three if the complaint requests this.

What happened

11. The Council responded to a complaint from Mrs X about how she was treated as a foster carer and the events that led to her resigning from her role. The Council responded and Mrs X asked the Council to progress her complaint to stage two. The Council confirmed it would consider her complaint at stage two the statutory complaints procedure. The Council subsequently responded, but its investigation was carried out under its corporate complaints policy.
12. If we were to investigate this complaint, it is likely we would find the Council at fault. This is because the complaint is about the treatment of Mrs X whilst she was a foster carer and therefore is a matter that should be considered under the statutory complaints procedure and the Council told Mrs X that this is the procedure it was using. Its failure to use this process means that Mrs X has missed out on and independent investigation into her complaint.
13. We therefore asked the Council to reinvestigate Mrs X’s complaint. This time at stage two of the statutory complaint’s procedure. To its credit, the Council agreed to resolve the complaint and has agreed with our recommendation. It will therefore start its stage two investigation without delay.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman