Westminster City Council (23 009 734)
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We have upheld this complaint because the Council failed to consider a complaint about a child in need under the statutory children’s complaints procedure. The Council has offered to resolve the complaint by considering the complaint at stage two of the statutory procedure and offering to make a payment to the complainant to remedy the injustice caused by not doing so sooner.
The complaint
- The complainant, who I will call Mr X, complains that the Council failed to provide adequate to support to he and his child, who is a child in need.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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)
- Under our information sharing agreement, we will share this decision with the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted).
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr X complained to the Council about the support provided to he and his daughter. The Council responded to Mr X under its corporate complaints process and later provided an additional response from its children’s services.
- If we were to investigate this complaint it is likely that we would find fault. This is because the complaint should have been considered under the statutory children’s complaints procedure. It’s failure to progress the complaint under this procedure has caused Mr X in receiving a response to his complaint under the correct process.
- To its credit, the Council has offered to resolve the complaint by escalating Mr X’s complaint to stage two of the statutory complaints process and offering him a payment of £200 to remedy the time and trouble he has been too pursuing his complaint and in recognition of the delay in issuing him a response under the correct process.
Final decision
- We have upheld this complaint. The Council has agreed to resolve the complaint early by providing an appropriate remedy.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman