Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council has dealt with a complaint under the statutory children’s complaints procedure. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about how the Council has dealt with his complaint under the statutory children’s complaints procedure. Mr X says the Council should escalate his complaint to stage three and apologise for delays.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
3. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint unless we are satisfied the organisation knows about the complaint and has had an opportunity to investigate and reply. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to notify the organisation of the complaint and give it an opportunity to investigate and reply. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(5), section 34(B)6)

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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. The Council considered a complaint from Mr X under the three stage statutory children’s complaints procedure.
7. The Council issued a stage one response to Mr X in May 2024, and he asked the Council to escalate to stage two shortly after.
8. The complaint was allocated to an investigator and an independent person who offered to meet with Mr X to try to agree a statement of complaint. When this could not be agreed the Council decided to proceed with the investigation based on the information it had.
9. Mr X told the Council that he wants the complaint escalated to stage three. The Council has said this isn’t possible. Mr X has said he does not want the stage two investigation to continue so the Council has closed the complaint but told Mr X it can be reopened and allocated to a different investigator if he changes his mind.
10. I will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. The Council acknowledges that there have been delays in handling his complaint and has agreed to consider this point as part of its stage two investigation. There is no scope for complaints to progress to stage three without a stage two investigation first taking place. Therefore, there is insufficient evidence of fault with the Council when it refused to escalate Mr X’s complaint to stage three.
11. It remains an option for Mr X to ask the Council to reopen his complaint and consider the issues raised, including delays to the complaints process. We will not consider them until the complaints process has concluded.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Mr X’’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman