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 now agreed to resolve the complaint by allocating to the case to an investigator and issuing its stage two response without further delay. 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 complains about how the Council’s children’s services dealt with child protection matters. Mr X asked the Ombudsman to intervene after he did not receive a stage two response 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, where 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 been accepted at stage one the local authority is obliged to ensure the complaint proceeds to stages two and three if the complainant requests this.

Assessment

11. Mr X complained to the Council who responded at stage one of the statutory complaints procedure. Mr X asked the Council to escalate his complaint to stage two in April. The Council has said that there has been a delay in progressing Mr X’s complaint due to an independent person leaving their role and an increase in complaints. The Council has said it is in the process of recruiting further independent persons.
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 two response. This has meant Mr X has been to some significant time and trouble pursuing her complaint.
13. We therefore asked the Council to allocate Mr X’s complaint to an independent person and investigator within one month and complete its stage two investigation without further delay, advising Mr X how he can escalate his complaint further. We also asked that within one month the Council to apologise to Mr X for the delay and offer to make a payment to him of £250 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.

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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