Summary: We have upheld Miss X’s complaint because the Council delayed considering this under the statutory children’s complaints process. The Council has agreed to resolve the complaint early by providing a proportionate remedy for the injustice caused to Miss X.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains the Council has not properly addressed her concerns about its children’s social care provision, has been poor in its communications and has failed to progress her complaint to stage 2 of the statutory process, causing distress.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. 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)
4. 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

5. I considered information provided by Miss X and the Council.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. We expect councils to complete the statutory children’s complaints process before we will consider a complaint.
8. If we were to investigate it is likely we would find fault causing Miss X injustice because the Council has delayed completing stage 2 of the statutory process. We will not investigate the substantive complaints while this remains incomplete.
9. We therefore asked the Council to consider remedying the injustice caused by taking the following actions to resolve the complaint early, within one month of this decision:
• Provide an apology to Miss X taking account of our guidance on remedies which sets out our expectations for how organisations should apologise effectively to remedy injustice;

• Complete stage 2 and issue the stage 2 response, ensuring this tells Miss X she can request a stage 3 panel;

• Pay Miss X £100 for distress arising due to the delay.

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Agreed action

10. To its credit the Council agreed to resolve the complaint and will complete the actions at paragraph 9, to put things right.

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Final decision

11. We have upheld this complaint because the Council has agreed to resolve the complaint 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