Summary: We have upheld this complaint because the Council delayed considering a complaint at stage three of the children’s statutory complaints procedure. The Council has now agreed to resolve the complaint by arranging a stage three panel without further delay. It will also apologise to the complainant for not doing so sooner.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains that the Council has failed to progress her complaint to stage three of the statutory children’s complaints procedure.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. The law sets out a three-stage procedure for councils to follow when looking at complaints about children’s social care services. The first stage of the procedure is local resolution, the second stage involves an independent investigation with oversight from an independent person.
6. 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. When arranging a panel, Council’s should have due regard to the complainant’s availability and convenience. The complainant should be notified of the Panel’s date and location in writing at least 10 working days before the Review Panel meets and be invited to attend.
7. The Council issued its stage two response to Miss X in late April. Miss X contacted the Council in May to ask why it had not been escalated to stage three, but the Council responded to say it had no record of such a request being received. Miss X sent a request for escalation to stage three in late May.
8. Since late May the Council has sent Miss X several emails either asking her to provide dates that she was available to attend a panel hearing, or told her that if she is unable to attend she could provide her comments to the panel chair.
9. If we were to investigate this complaint it is likely that we would find the Council at fault. Whilst I acknowledge that the Council did try to assist Miss X in attending the stage three panel, the hearing should have taken place within 30 working days of Miss X’s request, and whilst the Council was right to have had due regard for Miss X’s attendance, this should not have been to the detriment of meeting the statutory timeframe.
10. We therefore asked the Council to apologise to Miss X for its delay and arrange the stage three panel within one month of the date of our final decision. To its credit, the Council has agreed with our recommendation in order to resolve the complaint. Due to the circumstances of the case and the relatively short delay I do not consider that any further remedy is appropriate.

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Final decision

11. 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