Summary: Mrs X complained the Council has withdrawn means tested adoption allowance, failed to assess and plan support, and its complaint response was poor. We have not investigated the substantive issues and have not made findings on those matters. But the Council was at fault. It failed to consider Mrs X’s complaint through the children’s statutory complaint procedure. Because of the fault, Mrs X suffered distress and frustration. The Council will apologise to Mrs X and consider her complaint through the children’s statutory complaint procedure, beginning at stage two of the process. It will also issue a staff briefing.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains the Council wrongly withdrew a means tested adoption allowance, failed to assess and plan support, and its complaint response was poor.
2. She says the Council’s actions have placed her family into hardship and has pushed them into crisis.
3. Mrs X says she would like the Council to arrange a multi-agency meeting to develop an adoption support plan. She would also like a financial remedy.

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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. 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(1), 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).

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered evidence provided by Mrs X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
8. Mrs 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

Statutory complaint procedure

9. 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.
10. The first stage of the procedure is local resolution. Councils have up to 20 working days to respond.
11. 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.
12. 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.
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 the request, and then issue a final response within 20 working days of the panel hearing.

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What happened

14. This is a summary of events outlining key facts and it does not include everything that has happened in this case.
15. Mrs X is an adoptive parent to two children. She says the Council withdrew a means tested adoption allowance in December 2024 without prior notice. Mrs X brought a complaint about these matters to us and in Summer 2025 we told her to go back to the Council to exhaust the Council’s complaint procedure. This is because the Council told us it had not yet had the opportunity to investigate Mrs X’s complaint.
16. The Council has since considered the issues Mrs X complains of, and she has now brought matters to us again. The Council has considered Mrs X complaint through the corporate complaint procedure.

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Analysis

17. The matters of Mrs X’s complaint fall under the children’s statutory complaint procedure and so the Council should have considered Mrs X’s complaint through that process. The Council’s failure to do so was fault and has caused Mrs X avoidable distress and frustration.
18. The children’s statutory complaint 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. This independence is not available to complaints put through the corporate complaint procedure. Because of this, we expect councils to complete the statutory complaints procedure.
19. I have therefore not investigated Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s actions in relation to the means tested adoption allowance and adoption support. I also have not investigated Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s complaint-handling other than its failure to use the correct process. This is because we expect the statutory complaint procedure to be completed before we will consider whether there were any flaws in how the Council responded to Mrs X’s concerns.

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Action

20. To remedy the outstanding injustice caused to Mrs X by the fault I have identified, the Council has agreed to take the following actions within four weeks of this final decision:
• Apologise to Mrs X for the distress and frustration caused to her by the Council’s fault. This apology should be in accordance with our guidance Making an effective apology.
• Begin an investigation of Mrs X’s complaint at stage two of the children’s statutory complaint procedure, ensuring it meets the timescales as set out in the procedure, as outlined in paragraph 12. If Mrs X is unhappy with the outcome of the stage two investigation and asks the Council for a stage three review panel, the Council should ensure it meets the timescales as set out in the procedure, as outlined in paragraph 13.
21. Within three months of my final decision, the Council will also remind relevant staff about which matters fall under the children’s statutory complaint procedure, and that the Council must follow that procedure when it applies.
22. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

23. I uphold Mrs X’s complaint and find fault causing injustice. The Council has agreed actions to remedy injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman