Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about delay in the Council responding to her stage two complaint under the children’s statutory complaint procedure. This is because the Council has agreed to resolve the complaint early by providing a proportionate remedy for the injustice caused.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains about delay in the Council responding to her stage two complaint under the children’s statutory complaint procedure.

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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 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)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. The Children Act 1989 sets out a three-stage procedure for councils to follow when looking at complaints about children’s social care services. We call this the children’s statutory complaints procedure.
6. Ms X requested her complaint be escalated at the beginning of January 2024. The Council failed to identify her request as a stage two request under the children’s statutory procedure until February 2024.
7. The Council should have completed its stage two investigation and issued its adjudication response within 13 weeks of Ms X’s request for escalation to stage two. Taking the request date of February 2024, this meant the Council should have completed stage two by April 2024.
8. To date, the Council has yet to issue its investigation report or adjudication response. This is a delay of just over seven months. Therefore, if we were to investigate, it is likely we would find fault causing injustice.
9. We therefore asked the Council to consider remedying the injustice caused by:
• Apologising to Ms X for the delay.
• Making a symbolic financial payment of £50 for each month of delay. A total of £350.

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Agreed action

10. To its credit, the Council agreed to resolve the complaint and will complete the above within four weeks of the final decision.

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Final decision

11. We have upheld this complaint because the Council has agreed to resolve the complaint early by providing a proportionate remedy for the injustice caused.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman