Summary: Miss X complained about how the Council delivered support to her children. We have found that the Council was at fault, as it has not yet dealt with Miss X’s complaint properly. It will now do so.

The complaint

1. Miss X makes a complaint about various ways in which she feels the Council’s children’s social care service has failed her disabled children.

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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. If we are satisfied with a council’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)
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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What I have and have not investigated

5. Miss X has made two complaints to the Council about issues which are linked (and which can broadly be described as, ‘the quality of support her children received’).
6. The Council finished its consideration of the first complaint in March 2024, at which point Miss X did not pursue it further. And she did not approach us about the complaint until January 2025.
7. Section 26B of the Local Government Act says we cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done.
8. The events Miss X complained about in her first complaint are, by the definition in the Act, late. I note that the Council was responsible for around three months of delays. But Miss X then waited around nine months before complaining to us.
9. In the absence of any obvious reason why Miss X could not have complained to us sooner, I have decided that I cannot investigate the issues Miss X raised in her first complaint.
10. Miss X made her second complaint to the Council in July 2024. Most, if not all, the issues she raised in it took place in 2024. This means the second complaint is not late, and I will consider the Council’s response to it in more detail below.

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How I considered this complaint

11. I considered evidence provided by Miss X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
12. 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

13. The statutory guidance, ‘Getting the best from complaints’, sets out a three-stage procedure for complaints about certain aspects of children’s social care. I refer to this as ‘the statutory procedure’.
14. Parents can use this procedure to complain about their children’s social care assessment and support.
15. The benefit of the statutory procedure is that the parent gets an independent investigation of their complaint (at stage 2), and, if they wish, an independent review (at stage 3).
16. If a complainant wants to progress their complaint through all three stages of the statutory procedure, then they have the right to do so.
17. The Ombudsman normally expects councils (and complainants) to follow the full statutory procedure before involving us. A complaint can only be referred to the Ombudsman earlier if, following a robust stage two investigation, all significant parts of the complaint have been upheld.
18. In Miss X’s case, the Council did not put her second complaint through the statutory procedure. It responded under two stages of its own, corporate procedure. This is because the Council felt the second complaint was a follow-up to the first one.
19. However:
• The focus of Miss X’s second complaint, while following on from similar features of her first complaint, was about matters arising since the first complaint. Much of the second complaint is new.
• Miss X’s children appear to be on ‘child in need’ plans and her complaint is about how the Council discharged its duties to them – so this sits squarely within the remit of the statutory procedure.
20. With this in mind, and as the criteria for an early referral to the Ombudsman are not met, the complaint should now be considered under stage 2 of the statutory procedure.
21. If Miss X is still unhappy after all three stages of the statutory procedure have been completed, she can come back to us and ask us to consider her complaint.

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Action

22. Within two weeks, the Council has agreed to allocate an investigator to consider Miss X’s complaint under stage 2 of the statutory children’s complaints procedure.
23. The Council will provide us with evidence it has done this.

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Decision

24. The Council was at fault for failing to handle Miss X’s complaint properly. This caused her an injustice, which the Council will now take action to address.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman