Summary: Miss X complained the Council failed to deliver services to her child. She also complained about its complaint handling. We found the Council was at fault. Miss X did not have the opportunity to have her complaint properly considered via the children’s statutory complaints procedure. The Council will apologise to Miss X, make a symbolic payment to her, and complete the complaints procedure without further delay.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained the Council failed to provide services her child needed.
2. She complained about significant delay in the Councils complaint handling.
3. Miss X said the impact on both her and her child has been profound. They have suffered because of a lack of help and support from the Council. The delay in properly handling her complaint has added to their distress.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. 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)
5. We may investigate matters coming to our attention during an investigation, if we consider that a member of the public who has not complained may have suffered an injustice as a result. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26D and 34E, as amended)
6. Under our information sharing agreement, we will share this decision with the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted).
7. 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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What I have and have not investigated

8. I investigated how the Council handled Miss X’s complaint under the children’s statutory complaints procedure. I did not investigate the substantive complaint made by Miss X to the Council.
9. The children’s statutory 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.

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How I considered this complaint

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

Law and guidance

12. 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.
13. The first stage of the procedure is local resolution. Councils have up to 20 working days to respond.
14. 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.
15. Following the investigation, a senior manager (the adjudicating officer) at the council should carry out an adjudication. The officer considers the IO report and any report from the IP. They decide what the council’s response to the complaint will be, including what action it will take. The adjudicating officer should then write to the complainant with a copy of the investigation report, any report from the independent person and the adjudication response.
16. 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.
17. 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.

What happened here

18. The following is a chronology of key events and is not a list of everything that happened.
19. In September 2024 we issued a decision about how the Council handled Miss X’s complaint at stage two of the children’s statutory complaints procedure. We found the Council was at fault for how it handled Miss X’s request to move to stage two of the complaint.
20. The Council agreed to complete Miss X’s complaint properly, apologise and make a symbolic payment to her.
21. As is usual procedure, we monitored the Councils compliance with our recommendations. We expected the stage two investigation to be finished by no later than December 2024. We kept in contact with the Council.
22. In March 2025 the Council told us the stage two investigation was complete, and the report would be shared with Miss X. However, Miss X had still not received the report or confirmation of this, at the start of April 2025.
23. Mid-April the Council wrote to Miss X. It sent her a copy of the stage two investigation. Miss X asked it to escalate her complaint to stage three of the children’s statutory complaints procedure.
24. The Council did not respond to Miss X.
25. Miss X complained about this to the Ombudsman.
26. We registered a new complaint for Miss X, in April 2025, due to the Councils failure to fulfil the recommendations it agreed as part of the previous investigation.

My findings

27. The Council far exceeded the 25 working day guideline for completing the stage two investigation. It also exceeded the extended deadline of 65 working days.
28. It took the Council 154 working days to complete stage two of the children’s statutory complaints procedure. This is 89 working days longer than it should have been. Miss X first made her complaint to the Council in February 2024. It has taken the Council 15 months to hear her complaint at two stages of the procedure. This significant delay is fault by the Council. This fault has caused, and is still causing, ongoing frustration and uncertainty for Miss X.
29. In May 2025, we asked the Council for an update about stage three of the procedure. It told us Miss X had not been in contact with it.
30. The Council has since been in contact with Miss X. It told her it had not processed her request to proceed to stage three because the officer she sent the email to was on annual leave. The Council has said it will start stage three of the procedure without delay.

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Action

31. The Ombudsman is currently investigating the Councils mishandling of the children’s statutory complaints procedure, on a wider level. We are aware that similar injustice, as that suffered by Miss X, has been experienced by other complainants.
32. The Council told us, as part of another investigation, it has a plan in place to address issues relating to delay in the procedure. Therefore, I am not making service improvement recommendations as part of this investigation.
33. To remedy the injustice to Miss X from fault by the Council, within four weeks of a final decision, the Council has agreed to take the following action:
• Apologise to Miss X in line with our guidance on Making an Effective Apology. 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.
• Make a symbolic payment to Miss X of £250. This is £50 for every month there was a delay in completing the stage two investigation (4 months) and progressing to stage three of the statutory children’s complaints procedure (1 month).
• Start stage three of the statutory children’s complaints procedure without further delay. Timescales set out in the statutory guidance ‘Getting the Best from Complaints’ should be adhered to. 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.
34. The Council will provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

35. 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