Summary: Mr X complained the Council failed to tell him about a significant issue in his children’s lives and failed to respond to his complaints. The Council was at fault for failing to reply to Mr X’s complaint. It will apologise and pay Mr X £200 to recognise the frustration he felt and time and trouble he went to. It will carry out a stage two investigation into Mr X’s complaint and explore why its systems did not register the complaint. We have not investigated Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s communication because he needs to complete the complaints procedure first.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained the Council failed to tell him about a significant issue in his children’s lives. He also said the Council failed to respond to his complaints. Mr X said this caused him significant distress and frustration.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word fault to refer to these. Service failure can happen when an organisation fails to provide a service as it should have done because of circumstances outside its control. We do not need to show any blame, intent, flawed policy or process, or bad faith by an organisation to say service failure (fault) has occurred. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1), as amended)
3. 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 discussed the complaint with him;
• 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

8. 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. We also published practitioner guidance on the procedures, setting out our expectations.
9. The first stage of the procedure is local resolution.
10. 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 look into the complaint and an independent person (IP) who is responsible for overseeing the investigation and ensuring its independence.
11. 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.

What happened

12. In late December 2022, Mr X says he called the Council to make a complaint. He said the Council failed to tell him about a significant event in his children’s lives. Mr X says he called the Council for a response to his complaint in January 2023.
13. Mr X submitted a written version of his complaint in mid-March. He later requested a stage two response to his complaint on the basis he had not received replies to his earlier contact.
14. Mr X did not hear back from the Council, so he complained to the Ombudsman.
15. The Council told us it was not aware of Mr X’s complaints and does not know where they went. It said it may need to investigate why they had been lost. It also said it would begin a stage two statutory children’s complaint investigation.

Findings

16. 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, thorough and prompt response to their concerns. Because of this, we expect people to complete the complaints 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 Council’s communication with him.
17. The Council says it does not know why its systems lost Mr X’s complaint. Regardless, the Council was at fault for failing to register and act on Mr X’s complaint. The fault caused Mr X avoidable frustration and meant he went to time and trouble in pursuing the Council’s response.

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Agreed action

18. Within one month of the date of my final decision, the Council will take the following actions.
1. Apologise to Mr X for the frustration caused by its failure to register and act upon his complaint and the time and trouble he went to in pursuing a response.
2. Pay Mr X £200 in recognition of that injustice.
3. Begin a stage two investigation under the statutory children’s complaints procedure and complete it within 65 working days.
19. Within two months of the date of my final decision, the Council will carry out an investigation into why Mr X’s complaints did not register on its system. The Council will send the Ombudsman the outcome of that investigation. If it identifies flaws in its processes, the Council will summarise what the issues are and send the Ombudsman details of the steps it will take to prevent the issues happening again.
20. The Council will provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Final decision

21. I have completed my investigation. I have found fault leading to personal injustice. I have recommended action to remedy that injustice and prevent reoccurrence of this fault.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman