Summary: We have upheld Miss X’s complaint about the Council’s dismissal of her concerns that it failed to properly consider her children’s needs. The Council has now agreed to consider Miss X’s complaint under the statutory procedure and a remedy for delay. This provides a proportionate remedy for the injustice caused.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains the Council failed to properly assess, record and respond to her family’s needs. She says assessments have been delayed, contained inaccuracies and omitted key evidence. Miss X says the Council has recorded her consent for Early Help, which she has not given. She also complains about the way in which the Council has dismissed her complaints about its handling.

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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 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

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

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My assessment

5. If we were to investigate it is likely we would find fault causing Miss X injustice because the Council should have considered and responded to her complaint under the statutory complaint procedure (Getting the Best from Complaints -Social Care Complaints and Representations for Children, Young People and Others). The Council instead declined to consider Miss X’s complaint further under its corporate procedure.
6. By not progressing this complaint under the correct procedure, the Council denied Miss X access to investigation and oversight under stages two and three of the statutory process. This likely amounts to fault causing injustice as it prevented Miss X from having her concerns independently reviewed.
7. We therefore asked the Council to reconsider the complaint under the remaining two stages of the statutory procedure.

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Agreed action

8. To its credit, the Council has agreed to resolve the complaint early by agreeing to consider Miss X’s complaint at stage two of the statutory procedure and progressing to stage three if Miss X requests this.
9. Within one month of this final decision, the Council has agreed to:

• commission an investigation of Miss X’s complaints through stage two (and stage three if requested) of the statutory complaints procedure, and;
• consider an appropriate remedy to Miss X for the Council’s delay in progressing her complaint through the correct procedure, taking into account of our Guidance on Remedies and Guidance for Practitioners.

10. The Council should provide us with evidence the above actions have been completed.

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Final decision

11. We have upheld this complaint because the Council has agreed to resolve the matter early by providing a proportionate remedy for the injustice caused to Miss X.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman