Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s actions during its contact with Mr X concerning his child. The Council has already investigated under the children’s statutory complaint procedures, and further investigation by us would not lead to a different outcome. Nor will we investigate the delays in the Council completing this procedure, because we have upheld this complaint and are satisfied the Council has agreed to resolve this complaint and provide an appropriate remedy for Mr X’s injustice.

The complaint

1. Mr X said the Council had not fully addressed his substantive concerns after his contact with Children’s Social Care, after it investigated his complaint through the children’s statutory complaint procedures. He was also unhappy it did not comply with the relevant deadlines at the various stages of the procedures.
2. Mr X said this caused him avoidable distress.

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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 provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we are satisfied with the actions an organisation has taken or proposes to take. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(7), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

6. Mr X made a complaint after his contact with the Council relating to a short break package. The Council considered his complaint through the children’s statutory complaint procedure.
7. Mr X said the Council had not fully resolved his concerns relating to an allegation of discrimination he made, and he was unhappy with the Council’s invitation to place a record of his views about what he saw as inaccuracies in a report.
8. If a complaint has already been through the three-stage Children Act complaints procedure, this means the complainant has already had access to an independent investigation.
9. Consequently, we will not normally re-investigate such a complaint unless we have reason to believe the previous investigation was flawed. I have read the documents from Mr X’s complaint, including the stage two reports and adjudication, and the stage three panel report, together with the Council’s final response. Given there is no obvious flaw in the Council’s investigation and responses, I am satisfied the Council has adequately investigated his complaint and further investigation by us is unlikely to result in a different outcome for Mr X.
10. I have, however, considered whether the Council’s proposed remedies properly recognise the avoidable distress Mr X may have experienced. I note the Council apologised for inaccuracies in a report and invited him to write to it with a statement of his views about the report’s inaccuracies and that is appropriate.
11. Mr X was also unhappy with how long it took the Council to complete the procedure. If we investigated this part of Mr X’s complaint, it is likely we would find fault because of a delay of around eight months.
12. We therefore asked the Council to consider remedying the injustice this delay caused Mr X, to resolve this part of his complaint early.

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Action

13. To its credit, the Council agreed to resolve the complaint early and will pay Mr X a symbolic financial remedy of £400, to put things right. The Council agreed to do this within four weeks of my decision.

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Final decision

14. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because further investigation of the substantive matters would not change the outcome. Additionally, we have upheld his complaint about delays in the complaint procedures and the Council has agreed an appropriate remedy to recognise Mr X’s injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman