Summary: We have discontinued our investigation into the Council’s handling of Mr X’s complaint. The Council is taking the necessary steps to issue its final response. When it issues its response, it will also offer him a symbolic financial remedy for his injustice. This means there is no good reason for us to be prematurely involved with the complaint.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains that the Council has delayed its response to his complaint about its children’s social care service.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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

3. I considered evidence provided by Mr X and the Council as well as relevant guidance.
4. Mr 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

5. The statutory guidance, ‘Getting the best from complaints’, sets out a three-stage procedure for complaints about certain aspects of children’s social care. I refer to this as ‘the statutory procedure’.
6. Children and young people can use this procedure to complain about the social care support they have received.
7. The benefit of the statutory procedure is that the child or young person gets an independent investigation of their complaint (at stage 2), and, if they wish, an independent review (at stage 3).
8. If a complainant wants to progress their complaint through all three stages of the statutory procedure, then they have the right to do so.
9. The Ombudsman normally expects councils (and complainants) to follow the full statutory procedure before involving us. A complaint can only be referred to the Ombudsman earlier if, following a robust stage two investigation, all significant parts of the complaint have been upheld.
10. A council has up to 30 working days to arrange a stage 3 review panel hearing, following which the panel has five working days to issue its findings. Then, finally, the council has 15 working days to issue its stage 3 complaint response.
11. Mr X made his stage 3 complaint in late January 2026. This means the Council should have arranged a panel hearing by late February. Instead, it originally booked in a hearing for mid-April – almost two months over the deadline. Mr X says this date has since been brought forward to mid-March.
12. This delay may have been caused by circumstances outside the Council’s control: a lack of availability of panel members. But this does not affect its statutory timeliness duty.
13. Although we cannot normally investigate complaints until a council has had an opportunity to investigate and reply, we can (and do) get involved during the statutory children’s procedure when there is significant ongoing delay. Our aim in doing so is to re-engage councils and complainants in the procedure.
14. In Mr X’s case our early involvement is not proportionate. This is because:
• The Council does not need to be re-engaged in the statutory procedure. It has already booked in a panel hearing and has actively worked on bringing this forward from the original date.
• The Council has agreed that, when it issues its response, it will make a symbolic payment to Mr X to recognise any injustice which may have arisen from the delay.
• The Council is already taking steps to improve its service. It is working with other neighbouring authorities to identify new stage 3 panel members, with the aim of reducing its capacity issues. Time will tell whether this is effective.
15. If the Council causes further significant delay to its stage 3 response (beyond the date of the panel hearing), Mr X can come back to us about the delay. Otherwise, he will need to wait until he has received the Council’s response.

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Decision

16. I have discontinued my investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman