Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about children services’ actions. There are no reasons to justify reinvestigating the Council’s Children Act statutory complaints’ procedure reply.

The complaint

1. Mrs X says the Council failed to properly address her complaints about children services’ actions.

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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 we are unlikely to add to any previous investigation by the organisation. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Mrs X and the Council’s replies to her.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. The Council’s children services team became involved in Mrs X’s family in April 2024 following Mr X’s arrest for a serious domestic incident. He was then subject to bail conditions until the case ended. Because of the allegations nature the Council’s children services team carried out a child protection investigation. It then received further reports of incidents and reassessed and considered the family on multiple occasions until August 2024 when it closed its case.
6. In August 2024 Mrs X complained to the Council about the way it had handled the case including the nature and frequency of contact with her and the content of documents it holds. She says the Council harassed her based on false and incorrect allegations and information.
7. The Council considered her complaint via its statutory children services procedure.
8. 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.
9. The first stage of the procedure is local resolution. Councils have up to 20 working days to respond.
10. 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.
11. 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.
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 request, and then issue a final response within 20 working days of the panel hearing.
14. Mrs X’s complaint completed the procedure in January 2026. There were significant delays at stage two as the Council changed one investigating officer and another had a period of ill health.
15. Mrs X disagrees with the complaint procedures findings. She complained to us and said she wanted to know if the Council had followed proper procedures, safeguards, and standards of professional conduct.
16. The statutory children’s 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, if a council has investigated something under the statutory children’s complaint process, the Ombudsman would not normally re-investigate it.
17. Here Mrs X accepted a symbolic payment at stage two for the complaint delays up to that point. The Council offered £100 for stage three delays. We are unlikely to achieve more.
18. There are no reasons why we should re investigate the Council’s own investigation.

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Final decision

19. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because there is no worthwhile outcome reasonably obtainable.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman