Summary: We upheld this complaint, and the Council has agreed to resolve the complaint early by taking the complaint through the children’s statutory complaints procedure. It also agreed to apologise to Ms X and pay her £200 to acknowledge the frustration caused by the delay. We did not investigate Ms X’s substantive complaint about the involvement of the Council’s children’s services because the Council agreed to progress the complaint through the statutory children’s complaints procedure.

The complaint

1. Ms X complained about the involvement of the Council’s children’s social work services. Ms X complained about the quality of a social worker’s assessment, delays in the Child in Need process, and the level of support provided for her child, Y.
2. Ms X said the matter impacted her financially and caused her distress and frustration.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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).
4. 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

5. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. If we investigated this complaint, we would likely find fault because the issues Ms X complained about fall under the scope of the children’s statutory complaints process. The Council responded to Ms X under its corporate complaints process.
8. The statutory children’s complaints procedure was set up to provide children, young people, and those involved in their welfare with access to an independent, thorough, and prompt response to their concerns. Because of this, we expect people to complete the complaints procedure before we will consider whether there were any flaws in how the Council investigated their concerns. I have therefore not investigated Ms X’s substantive complaint because the Council agreed to process the complaints through the statutory children’s complaints procedure.
9. The Council’s corporate complaint responses were analogous to a stage one children’s statutory complaint response. We therefore invited the Council to proceed from stage two of the children’s statutory complaints process.

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Agreed action

10. Within one month of the final decision, the Council agreed to:
• write to Ms X and apologise for the frustration and uncertainty caused by failing to consider her complaint through the statutory children’s complaints process;
• pay Ms X a symbolic payment of £200 in recognition of the frustration and uncertainty caused by the delay.
11. Within 65 working days of the final decision:
• start and complete stage two of the children’s statutory complaints process.

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Final decision

12. We upheld Ms X’s complaint, and the Council agreed to resolve the complaint early by providing a proportionate remedy for the injustice caused to Ms X.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman