Overview:

Key to names used

• Ms X The complainant

Summary

We found the Council failed to complete the recommendations made after it considered a complaint Ms X made through the children’s statutory complaints procedure. Her complaint to the Council was about matters including disabled adaptations to her home and a child and family assessment. We previously upheld other complaints from Ms X about other occasions when the Council failed to act on the recommendations from the children’s statutory complaints procedure which caused her frustration and uncertainty. We therefore have concerns about the Council’s governance arrangements to administer the children’s statutory complaints procedure. The fault in this investigation once again caused Ms X frustration and uncertainty and shows the Council is not taking enough action to learn from its mistakes.

Finding

Fault found causing injustice and recommendations made.

Recommendations

The Council must consider the report and confirm within three months the action it has taken or proposes to take. The Council should consider the report at its full Council, Cabinet or other appropriately delegated committee of elected members and we will require evidence of this. (Local Government Act 1974, section 31(2), as amended)

To remedy the injustice caused, we recommend within one month of the date of this report the Council:

• write to Ms X and apologise for the avoidable frustration, uncertainty and erosion of trust in the Council, caused by the Council’s faults. It should pay her a symbolic amount of £500 to recognise the same; and

• write to Ms X and tell her if it will complete an independent review of the Council’s system of support for children with disabilities. If the Council decides not to complete an independent review, it should provide a brief explanation of its rationale.

• We recommend within three months of the date of this report the Council:

• Provide training to all Council officers who respond as adjudicating officers in the children’s statutory complaints procedure in line with the statutory guidance. The training should include the importance of:

  • responding to a complainant’s desired outcomes;

  • responding to all recommendations made through the statutory complaints procedure, including where the Council does not agree to recommendations; and

  • identifying SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timebound) outcomes following an upheld complaint.

• Review how it identifies, records, implements, monitors and reviews recommendations made through the children’s statutory complaints procedure. The Council should ensure it has a robust mechanism in place, with management oversight, to ensure that recommendations are completed and evidence is recorded within timescales set by the adjudicating officer. The Council should ensure it is able to provide documentary evidence of it completing recommendations made through the children’s statutory complaints procedure.

The Council has now agreed to all these recommendations and has apologised and made the payment to Ms X.

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