Summary: We have upheld this complaint because the Council failed to progress a complaint to stage two of the children’s statutory complaints procedure. The Council has now agreed to resolve the complaint by progressing the complaint to stage two and completing its investigation without further delay. It will also apologise and offer to make a payment to the complainant to remedy the time and trouble he has been to.

The complaint

1. Mr X’s representative, Ms Z, complains about a lack of support for Mr X who is a looked after child. Ms Z asked the Ombudsman to intervene after Mr X 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 provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we are satisfied with the actions an organisation has taken or proposes to take. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(7), 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. The start date is defined as the date the complainant requests the stage two in writing, or, where the complaint was made orally, the date on which the council produces a final written record of the complaint.
10. 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.
11. 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

12. Ms Z complained to the Council on behalf Mr X. The Council responded at stage one of the statutory procedure. After some consideration Mr X decided he wanted to pursue his complaint and Ms Z wrote to the Council in October outlining why Mr X remained dissatisfied and what he wanted to achieve. The Council said a director would carry out a review, but this has yet to be completed.
13. If we were to investigate this complaint it is likely we would find the Council at fault. This is because the Council should have escalated the complaint to stage two of the statutory process in October. 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 his complaint and he has not received the answers raised in his complaint.
14. We therefore asked the Council to escalate the complaint to stage two of the statutory children’s complaints procedure. We also asked that within one month it apologises to Mr X for the delay and makes a payment to him of £300 to remedy the time and trouble he has been to in pursuing his complaint.
15. To its credit, the Council agreed to resolve the complaint and has agreed with our recommendation. It has now escalated the complaint to stage two and within a month it will apologise to Mr X and make a payment to him of £300.

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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