Summary: We have upheld this complaint because the Council delayed considering a complaint under the children’s statutory complaints procedure. The Council has now agreed to resolve the complaint by considering the complaint at stage one of the procedure. It will also apologise and offer to make a payment to the complainant to remedy the time and trouble they have been too.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained to the Council about how it dealt with matters relating to the care of his son. Mr X asked the Ombudsman to intervene after the Council failed to respond to his complaint.

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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 this 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. Mr X complained to the Council in April 2023 but did not receive a response. The Council accepts that the complaint was not correctly processed and should have been considered at stage one of the statutory complaints process.
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 the Council considering the complaint and issuing Mr X with a stage one response. This has meant Mr X has been to some significant time and trouble pursuing his complaint.
13. We therefore asked the Council to complete its investigation within the statutory timeframe advising Mr X how he can escalate his complaint further. We also asked the Council to apologise to Mr X for the delay and offer to make a payment to him of £200 to remedy the time and trouble he has been too pursuing his complaint.
14. To its credit, the Council agreed to resolve the complaint and has agreed with our recommendation to write to Mr X within one month to apologise for the delays and to offer a £200 payment.
15. The Council says that court proceedings commenced in January, and before considering Mr X’s complaint it will first need to consider if doing so would prejudice proceedings. It should therefore either provide Mr X with a stage one response within a month or advise Mr X the reasons why investigating his complaint at this stage would prejudice court proceedings.

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Final decision

16. 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