Summary: We uphold Mr and Mrs X’s complaint the Council has failed to reply to their complaint within its Children Act statutory complaints’ procedure. The Council has now agreed to do so.

The complaint

1. The complainants, whom I will call Mr and Mrs X, say the Council failed to reply to their children services’ complaint properly.

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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).
4. We cannot investigate a complaint about the start of court action or what happened in court. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5A, paragraph 1/3, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by Mr and Mrs X and the Council.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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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 and Mrs X complained to the Council about it not providing them with the support they need to apply for a special guardianship order and general support for the children they foster. The Council in October 2022 refused to escalate their complaint to stage two of the Children Act complaints’ procedure. It said it did not qualify for the procedure “because it is not alleging that due process was not followed, but requesting the Local Authority to use its discretion with regards to your request for post 18 support under an SGO”.
12. If we were to investigate it is likely we would find fault causing the complainants injustice because this complaint is one which falls within the Children Act statutory complaints’ procedure and the regulations have not been complied with.

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Agreed action

13. The Council has agreed to:
• Consider the complaints at stage two of the statutory process and provide a response within the regulations.

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Final decision

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

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman