Summary: Mr X complained about the Council’s support for his disabled child and about the Council’s motive for beginning child protection proceedings. The Council was at fault for failing to use the statutory children’s complaints procedure to investigate Mr X’s complaint, and for giving him confusing information. This caused Mr X undue frustration and meant he went to unnecessary time and trouble. The Council will apologise, pay Mr X £150 in recognition of his injustice and consider Mr X’s complaint at stage two of the statutory procedure.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained about the Council’s support for his disabled child. He also complained the Council used child protection proceedings to punish him for bringing a claim against the Council to court.
2. Mr X said the Council’s failure to provide sufficient support to his child caused them harm. He said the child protection proceedings caused unnecessary stress and inconvenience for him and his wife.

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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 significant injustice, or that could cause injustice to others in the future 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 have considered:
• all the information Mr X provided and gave him the opportunity to discuss the complaint with me;
• the Council’s comments about the complaint and the supporting documents it provided; and
• the relevant law and guidance and the Ombudsman's guidance on remedies.
7. Mr 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

Relevant law and guidance

Corporate complaints procedure

8. The law sets out how councils should respond to complaints about certain issues. This includes adult social care and some children’s social care issues as well as complaints about councillors. Other concerns, such as school transport, can be addressed using appeal processes. Most other services provided by councils can be complained about using a process typically called the corporate complaints procedure. These might include planning, environment, housing benefit, council tax, customer services and housing needs and support.

The Council operates a two stage corporate complaints procedure. The statutory children’s complaint procedure

9. The statutory children’s complaint process was set up to give children and those representing them an opportunity for a thorough independent investigation of their concerns. The procedure covers services including those provided to children in need (including disabled children), children in care, special guardians and families after they have adopted a child. The procedure does not cover child protection issues. Where a matter falls under the statutory procedure, the council must use the procedure to investigate it.
10. The statutory guidance on children’s complaints, titled ‘Children's social care: getting the best from complaints’ (the Guidance) says that where a complaint includes elements that are both inside and outside the scope of the procedure, councils are encouraged to consider all parts in a single investigation and response.
11. The Ombudsman has issued guidance for councils which states that where they receive a complaint which contains matters which fall under the statutory procedure and matters which come under different complaint procedures, the council should consider which procedure will result in the best outcome for the complainant. This means councils should think about whether issues that fall outside the statutory procedure would be best responded to using the statutory procedure or the complaint procedure they would normally come under.
12. The Children Act 1989 Representations Procedure (England) Regulations 2006 specify how the procedure should be carried out. It has three stages:
• The first stage of the procedure is local resolution.
• 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 investigating officer (IO) to investigate the complaint. They also appoint an independent person (IP), who is responsible for overseeing the investigation.
• If a complainant is unhappy with the outcome of the stage two investigation, they can ask for a stage three review by a panel with an independent chair.

Child protection

13. Councils have a duty to investigate if there is reasonable cause to suspect that a child in their area is suffering, or is likely to suffer, significant harm. They must decide whether they should take any action to safeguard or promote the child’s welfare. (Children Act 1989, section 47)
14. If information gathered under section 47 supports concerns and the child may remain at risk of significant harm, councils will begin child protection proceedings.

What happened

15. In mid-2022, the courts dismissed a claim Mr X brought against the Council. Shortly afterwards, the Council carried out a child and family assessment which led it to conclude it needed to start child protection proceedings to protect Mr X’s children.
16. In early 2023, Mr X complained to the Council about the support it had given his disabled child. He also complained the Council had used child protection proceedings to punish him after he took legal action against it.
17. The Council acknowledged Mr X’s complaint and explained it would respond to his complaint under its corporate complaints procedure.
18. The Council responded to Mr X’s complaint at stage one of the statutory children’s complaints procedure in mid-May 2023. In response to Mr X’s complaint about child protection, the Council explained it began proceedings because of welfare concerns it had about Mr X’s children.
19. Mr X was dissatisfied with the Council’s response and asked for a stage two response. He raised a number of questions in his request.
20. In late June 2023, the Council responded to the questions Mr X asked in his stage two request. It said “I have been asked to consider the matters you have raised and respond to the additional queries you had following my previous response to you. I will continue to respond to these under stage 1 of the Council’s statutory children’s complaints procedure”. It said it began child protection proceedings because of concerns about parenting capacity and ongoing neglect.
21. Mr X contacted the Council several times to ask for its stage two response to his complaint. He said it should be an independent investigation as part of the statutory procedure.
22. The Council responded in early July to say it was treating his complaint as a corporate complaint. It acknowledged it had said it was responding to his complaint using the statutory procedure in its stage one reply from mid-May 2023 and in its late June 2023 response to his questions. The Council apologised for the confusion.
23. The Council sent its stage two response in mid-August 2023. It partially upheld Mr X’s complaints about the support it provided to his disabled child. It did not uphold his complaint about the child protection proceedings.
24. Mr X remained dissatisfied and complained to the Ombudsman. The Council told us the person who responded to Mr X’s complaint at stage one and wrote the late June further response had mistakenly used a letter template that referred to the statutory children’s procedure.
25. The Council explained that Mr X’s complaint included matters which came under both the children’s statutory complaints procedure and the corporate complaints procedure. It had decided to use the corporate complaints procedure to respond to Mr X’s complaint. It said that, in line with the Ombudsman’s guidance, it considered the corporate procedure was the best way to give Mr X a single response to his concerns.

Findings

Complaints handling

26. Mr X’s complaint about child protection comes under the remit of the corporate complaints procedure. His complaint about the Council’s support of his disabled child comes under the statutory procedure. The Council said it decided to carry out a single investigation into Mr X’s complaint and respond using the corporate complaints procedure. I accept this view. However, the Council then wrongly told Mr X it was using the statutory procedure in its stage one response and the further reply it sent at the end of June 2023. This was confusing and caused Mr X avoidable frustration.
27. In addition, the Council was at fault for deciding to use the corporate procedure to respond to the entirety of Mr X’s complaint. The law and statutory guidance is clear that councils must use the statutory complaints procedure to respond to concerns which come under its remit.
28. The statutory guidance and Ombudsman’s guidance both encourage councils to carry out a single investigation and issue a joined-up response to complaints where there are issues which come under the statutory procedure and other complaints procedures. This means the Council could have chosen to include Mr X’s complaint about child protection in a statutory children’s complaint about the Council’s support to his disabled child. Neither piece of guidance allows the Council to choose not to use the statutory procedure where there are matters in a complaint that come under its remit. The fault caused Mr X further frustration and meant he went to undue time and trouble pursuing his complaint through the wrong complaints procedure.

Support of Mr X’s child

29. The statutory children’s complaints procedure was set up to provide children, young people and those involved in their welfare with access to an independent and thorough response to their concerns. Because of this, we expect people to complete the procedure before we will consider whether there were any flaws in how the Council investigated their concerns. I have therefore not investigated Mr X’s concerns about the support the Council gave to his child. I have recommended the Council carry out a statutory investigation into this matter below. Mr X can complain to the Ombudsman again if he is dissatisfied with the Council’s consideration of his statutory complaint.

Child protection

30. Mr X received the Council’s full response to his concern about the child protection proceedings as part of the corporate complaint. I have therefore considered whether the Council was at fault in its decision to start child protection.
31. I am satisfied the Council was not at fault. It has a duty to act if it considers a child is at risk of harm or neglect. The Council has confirmed that its professional view was that Mr X's children met that threshold because of concerns it had about parenting capacity and ongoing neglect. The Council repeatedly confirmed the proceedings were not an attempt to seek revenge on Mr X for taking legal action. I have seen no reason to question that assertion.

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Agreed action

32. Within one month of the date of my final decision, the Council will take the following actions.
• Apologise to Mr X for the frustration he felt and time and trouble he went to due to its failure to consider his complaint properly.
• Pay Mr X £150 in recognition of that frustration and time and trouble.
• Begin a stage two investigation under the statutory children’s complaints procedure of Mr X’s complaint about how it supported his child. The Council will complete the investigation within a maximum of 65 working days, in line with the statutory guidance.
33. The Council will provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Final decision

34. I have completed my investigation. I have found fault leading to personal injustice. I have recommended action to remedy that injustice.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman