Summary: We have upheld this complaint because the Council failed to inform the complainant that they could escalate their complaint to stage three of the children’s statutory complaints procedure, this caused a delay in the Council fully considering the complaint. The Council has now agreed to resolve the complaint by taking suitable action to remedy the injustice this caused.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will call Mrs X, complains about how the Council managed her child’s SEN, education and social care provision.

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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 at stage two of the statutory procedure upholding some but not all of her complaint. The Council signposted Mrs X to the Ombudsman if she remained dissatisfied with the Council’s response.

Assessment

12. If we were to investigate this complaint, it is likely we would find the Council at fault. This is because it signposted Mrs X to the Ombudsman when it should have advised her of her right to escalate her complaint to stage three of the procedure. This has resulted in a delay in the statutory complaints procedure. Mrs X has therefore been to some time and trouble pursuing the matter and means there has been a delay in her receiving answers to the questions raised in her complaint.
13. We therefore asked the Council to write to Mrs X to apologise and to advise her how she can now request her complaint be escalated to stage three of the statutory complaints procedure. We also asked the Council to offer to make a payment to Mrs X of £100 to remedy the time and trouble she has been too pursuing her complaint.
14. To its credit, the Council agreed to resolve the complaint and has agreed with our recommendation. It will therefore write to Mrs X within one month of the date of my final decision to apologise advising her of her stage three escalation rights and offer to make a payment to her of £100.

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Final decision

15. We have upheld this complaint. The Council has agreed to resolve the complaint early by providing an appropriate remedy.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman