Summary: Mrs X complained about delays with the Council’s investigation of her complaint about children’s social care. There were delays with the Council’s investigation which has caused Mrs X further avoidable distress. The Council agreed to complete its investigation without further delay, apologise to Mrs X and pay her a financial remedy. It also agreed to review part of its process for dealing with complaints about children’s services.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains about delays with the statutory children’s complaints process. She says despite asking the Council for a stage two investigation in November 2024, it has still not completed that part of the process. She says this has caused her additional distress on top of the underlying issues the Council has agreed to investigate. She wants the Council to complete its investigation without any further delay.

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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)
3. The Ombudsman’s view, based on caselaw, is that ‘service failure’ is an objective, factual question about what happened. A finding of service failure does not imply blame, intent or bad faith on the part of the council involved. There may be circumstances where we conclude service failure has occurred and caused an injustice to the complainant despite the best efforts of the council. This still amounts to fault. We may recommend a remedy for the injustice caused and/or that the council makes service improvements. (R (on the application of ER) v CLA (LGO) [2014] EWCA civ 1407) 
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)

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How I considered this complaint

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

Statutory children’s complaints process

8. 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.
9. The first stage of the procedure is local resolution. Councils have up to 20 working days to respond.
10. If a complainant is not happy with a council’s stage one response, they can ask that it is considered at stage two. At this stage of the procedure, councils appoint an investigating officer (IO) to look into the complaint and an independent person (IP) who is responsible for overseeing the investigation and ensuring its independence.
11. The whole stage two process should be completed within 25 working days but guidance allows an extension for up to 65 working days where required.
12. This time for stage two starts from:
• when the person asks for stage two in writing; or
• only if they make the request orally, when a written statement of their complaint has been agreed. (The Children Act 1989 Representations Procedure (England) Regulations 2006, regulation 17)
13. If a complainant is unhappy with the outcome of the stage two investigation, they can ask for a stage three review by an independent panel. The council must hold the panel within 30 working days of the date of request, and then issue a final response within 20 working days of the panel hearing.

My findings

14. Mrs X complained to the Council, in October 2024, about the social care support it provided for her child.
15. The Council sent Mrs X its response under stage one of the statutory children’s complaints process in mid-November 2024. Mrs X was not satisfied with the response and asked the Council for a stage two investigation the same day.
16. In its response to our enquiries, the Council told us its complaints policy says the stage two timescale starts from when the statement of complaint is agreed and signed. This is not correct or in line with the regulations which say that, where someone asks for stage two in writing, the time limit starts running from when they send their written request.
17. Mrs X asked for stage two in writing, as she had done with her stage one complaint. Therefore, the start date for stage two of the process was the day Mrs X asked the Council for this, and the Council should have completed the stage two investigation by mid-February 2025 at the latest.
18. However, the Council has still not completed the stage two investigation. On the balance of probabilities, I am satisfied this was because of:
• delays in finding a suitable independent person;
• delays with the Council providing information the investigating officer needed; and
• the investigating officer no longer being available and, as a result, the Council needing to find a replacement.
19. I am satisfied those delays were fault. Although some of the reasons were outside the Council’s control, the law still required the Council to complete the stage two within the 65 working day timescale. I consider those delays were service failure, and therefore still fault.
20. Those delays have caused Mrs X avoidable frustration and distress, on top of any other injustice caused by the underlying issues which the Council is still investigating. Since the Council has not yet completed the stage two investigations, that distress will continue until the Council has done so.
21. 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 Mrs X’s concerns about the social care support the Council provided to Mrs X’s child.

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Action

22. Within one month of my final decision the Council will:
• allocate a new investigating officer and independent person, and complete the stage two investigation without further delay;
• apologise to Mrs X for the delays to the end of June 2025; and
• pay her £250 to recognise the delay to that date.
23. On the earlier of the following two dates, the Council will also pay Mrs X a further £50 for each month (or part thereof) between the start of July 2025 and:
• when the Council has completed its stage two investigation; or
• the end of December 2025.
24. Within three months of my final decision the Council will amend its process for statutory children’s complaints to make sure it uses the correct start date for stage two of that process, according to the relevant regulations.
25. We publish guidance on remedies which sets out our expectations for how organisations should apologise effectively to remedy injustice. The organisation should consider this guidance in making the apology I have recommended in my findings.
26. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

27. I find fault causing injustice. The Council has agreed actions to remedy injustice.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman