Summary: The complainant (Miss X) said the Council failed in its support for her and her children who are in care. She complained about frequent changes of her children’s social workers, unsatisfactory communication and conditions of the contact centre for her meetings with the children. We found fault with the Council for refusing to consider Miss X’s complaint through its children’s statutory complaint procedure. This caused Miss X injustice. The Council agreed to apologise and consider Miss X’s complaint under its children’s statutory complaint procedure. The Council also agreed to provide its staff dealing with the children’s services complaints with a learning bulletin, highlighting Miss X’s experience.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains about frequent changes of her children’s social workers and the condition of the contact centre where she meets with her children. She also complains about the way the children services communicated with her.
2. Miss X says the Council’s alleged failings has affected:
• her health as she worries her children have been reluctant to express their concerns to social workers in view of their frequent changes;
• the quality of her meetings with the children.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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)
4. 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)
5. Under our information sharing agreement, we will share this decision with the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted).

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How I considered this complaint

6. I reviewed all the documents sent by Miss X.
7. I reviewed the Council’s children’s statutory complaint procedure and our Guide for practitioners ‘Children’s statutory complaints process’ revised in February 2022.
8. Miss X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.

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What I found

Legal and administrative background

9. The guidance ‘Getting the best from complaints’ Social Care Complaints and Representations for Children, Young People and Others (Guidance) is based on the Children Act 1989 Representations Procedure (England) Regulations 2006. Only in exceptional circumstances councils can justify a variation from this document.

The Guidance specifies:

• which complaints should be considered under children’s statutory complaints procedure;
• who can complain;
• process and timescales for considering complaints.
1. Complaints about some councils’ functions performed under Part four of the Children Act 1989 should be considered under the statutory children’s complaints legislation. These include:
• the effect of the care order and the council’s actions and decisions where a care order is made;
• control of parental contact with children in care.
2. The right to have a complaint about children looked after by the local authority considered under the statutory children’s complaints procedure extends on their parents and any other person who has parental responsibility for them.
3. The law sets out a three-stage procedure for councils to follow when looking at complaints about children’s social care services:
• the first stage of the procedure is local resolution. Councils have up to 20 working days to respond;
• 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;
• 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

13. In December 2021 the Court issued an interim care order for Miss X’s children.
14. A year later Miss X raised concerns about her children and her contact with them.
15. At the end of December 2022 the Council refused to consider Miss X’s complaint, saying Miss X’s concerns were intrinsically linked to the ongoing public law proceedings. It said they would be shared with the court case manager and the allocated team.
16. Four weeks later Miss X brought her complaint to us.

Analysis

17. Miss X complained about changes of her children’s social workers, the Council’s communication with her and the conditions of the contact centre where she met her children. The matters complained about resulted from the interim court order. The court could not deal with these matters as part of the care proceedings.
18. When a council commissions another organisation to provide services on its behalf it remains responsible for those services and for the actions of the organisation providing them. As the body responsible to facilitate Miss X’s contact with her children, the Council has responsibility to ensure contact centres are suitable for these meetings.
19. As explained under paragraph ten of this decision the effects of the care order and the council’s actions and decisions where a care order is made as well as the control of parental contact with children in care should be considered by the Council under its children’s statutory complaint procedure.
20. The Council’s failing to look at Miss X’s concerns in accordance with this procedure is fault. This fault caused Miss X injustice as she was not given the opportunity to have her concerns considered.

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Agreed action

21. To remedy the injustice caused by the faults identified, we recommend the Council within four weeks of my final decision complete the following:
• send a written apology to Miss X;
• consider Miss X’s complaint at stage one of its children’s statutory complaint procedure and advise her on her right to request stage two.

The Council will provide us with the evidence the above has happened.

22. We also recommend the Council’s staff dealing with the children’s services complaints within three months of the final decision will receive a learning bulletin, highlighting Miss X’s experience and reminding them of the Council’s responsibility in responding to complaints when care proceedings are ongoing. The Council will send us the evidence this has happened.

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Final decision

23. I uphold this complaint as I found fault with the Council’s refusal to consider Miss X’s complaint through its children’s statutory complaint procedure. This fault caused Miss X injustice. The Council has accepted my recommendations for remedies, so this investigation is at an end.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman