Cumberland Council (24 004 450)
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s delay completing the statutory children’s complaints process because we are satisfied with the actions agreed to remedy this.
The complaint
- Ms X complains the Council has delayed completing the statutory children’s complaints process.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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 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)
- Under our information sharing agreement, we will share this decision with the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted).
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Ms X and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- If we investigated this complaint it is likely we would find the Council at fault because it has not completed the stage 2 investigation within the statutory timescales. The Council confirmed it would start stage 2 on 9 April 2024 yet as of 11 September 2024 Ms X had not received the Council’s response.
- We therefore asked to the Council to consider remedying the injustice caused by:
- providing Ms X with an apology for the delay;
- issuing its stage 2 response without further delay and;
- paying Ms X £150 for distress.
- To its credit the Council agreed to resolve the complaint and will complete the actions at paragraph 7 within one month of this decision.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because the Council has agreed to resolve the complaint early by providing a proportionate remedy for the injustice caused to Ms X.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman