Summary: Miss X complained about a lack of social care support for her disabled child, Y. The Council failed to investigate Miss X’s complaint under the statutory children’s complaints procedure. The Council has now started an investigation under the statutory procedure. It agreed to apologise to Miss X and pay her £100 to acknowledge the frustration and time and trouble caused to her.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained about a lack of social care support from children’s services for her disabled child, Y.
2. Miss X said the lack of support is having a significant impact on her and the wider family and Y is not getting the help they are entitled to.

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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 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)
4. If we are satisfied with an organisation’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)
5. 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

6. I considered evidence provided by Miss X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
7. Miss X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments before making a final decision.

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What I found

Child in Need

8. Section 17 of the Children Act 1989 defines a child in need as a child who “is unlikely to achieve or maintain, or to have the opportunity of achieving or maintaining, a reasonable standard of health or development without the provision for them of services by a local authority. A child who is disabled is classed as a child in need.
9. Section 17(1) of the Children Act imposes a duty on the Council to safeguard and promote the welfare of children within its area who are in need by providing a range and level of services appropriate to those children’s needs. Services include:
• Advice, guidance and counselling
• Respite care
• Financial assistance
• Assistance for holidays
10. If the family is not happy with the council’s action under s17, and complains to the council, the law says the council should respond to that complaint using the Children Act statutory complaints procedure.

The statutory complaints procedure

11. 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. We also published practitioner guidance on the procedures, setting out our expectations.
12. 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.
13. The statutory guidance gives examples of complaints which must be considered under the statutory children’s complaints process, including:
• An unwelcome or disputed decision
• Delay in decision making or provision of services
• Delivery or non-delivery of services including complaints procedures.
• Attitude of behaviour of staff
• Application of eligibility and assessment criteria
• The impact on a child or young person of the application of a local authority policy; and
• Assessment, care management and review.

What happened

14. In June 2024 Miss X complained to the Council about a lack of social care support for her disabled child, Y.
15. The Council provided a response under its corporate complaints procedure in October 2024 not upholding her complaints. Miss X escalated her complaint to stage two of the complaints procedure. The Council sent Miss X a final response directing her to us.
16. At the end of October 2024 Miss X complained to us.

My findings

17. Miss X’s complaint to the Council was about delay and non-delivery of social care support for her disabled child. The law is clear that when a family is not happy with a council’s actions under Section 17 of the Children Act 1989 then it should reply using the statutory children’s complaints procedure. Not doing so was fault and meant the Council did not handle Mrs X’s complaint correctly.
18. Since Miss X complained to us the Council has accepted it did not progress the complaint correctly. It has now begun a stage two investigation under the statutory children’s complaints procedure and will direct Miss X back to us if she remains unhappy at the end of that process. I have therefore not investigated Miss X’s substantive complaint about the lack of social care for Y.

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Agreed action

19. Within one month of the final decision the Council agreed to:
1. apologise to Miss X and pay her £100 to acknowledge the frustration and time and trouble caused to her by failing to investigate her complaint under the statutory children’s complaints procedure. We publish guidance on remedies which sets out our expectations for how organisations should apologise effectively to remedy injustice. The Council should consider this guidance in making the apology I have recommended.
2. Remind complaint handling staff to progress complaints about the Council’s actions under Section 17 of the Children Act 1989 under the statutory children’s complaints procedure.
20. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

21. I find fault causing injustice. The Council agreed to my recommendations to remedy that injustice.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman