Summary: We have upheld this complaint because the Council delayed considering a complaint at stage two of the children’s statutory complaints procedure. The Council has agreed to resolve the complaint by issuing a stage two response without further delay, apologising to the complainant and offering to make a payment to them to remedy the time and trouble they have been too.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will call Mr X, complains about how the Council has carried out an assessment of his disabled child. Mr X asked the Ombudsman to intervene after the Council failed to respond to his complaint at stage two of the statutory children’s complaints procedure.

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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.

Assessment

11. The Council considered Mr X’s complaint at stage one of the statutory children’s complaints procedure. In May, Mr X asked the Council to escalate his complaint to stage two of the procedure. The Council told the Ombudsman that the request was missed, but that it would write to inform him that his complaint will be dealt with at stage two, apologise for the delay and make a payment to remedy the time and trouble he has been too.
12. If we were to investigate this complaint it is likely we would find the Council at fault. This is because there has been a delay in completing the stage two investigation and issuing Mr X with a response. This has meant Mr X has been to some significant time and trouble pursuing his complaint and has resulted in a delay in him receiving answers to the questions raised in his complaint.
13. We therefore asked the Council to ensure that Mr X’s complaint is completed within the statutory timeframes and ensure the payment made to him is £100.
14. To its credit, the Council agreed to resolve the complaint and has agreed with our recommendation. Therefore, within 65 days of the date of this final decision, it will complete its stage two investigation. It has now written to Mr X to inform him that his complaint will be escalated, to apologise and to offer him a payment of £150 to remedy the time and trouble he has been too.

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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