Summary: We have upheld this complaint about delay at stage two of the children’s statutory complaints procedure. The Council has agreed to resolve this complaint early by providing an apology and a financial payment.

The complaint

1. Ms X complained the Council delayed responding to her statutory children’s complaint at stages two and three. She also complained it failed to properly remedy the impact on her of the issues she experienced with children’s services. Ms X seeks a financial remedy.

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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; or
• decide any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.
• (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(7) and section 24 (6) as amended, section 34 (B))
3. 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

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

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My assessment

6. Ms X complained to the Council using the children’s statutory complaints procedure about her experience with children’s services. Statutory guidance sets out that the stage two investigation should be completed within a maximum of 65 working days.
7. The Council delayed by more than a month responding to Ms X’s complaint at stage two of the statutory procedure. If we investigated this complaint, it is likely we would find fault causing injustice because the Council has not adhered to the statutory timescale. We therefore asked the Council to consider remedying the injustice caused by its actions by apologising to Ms X and paying her £50 as a financial remedy. The Council has agreed to do this.
8. Ms X also complained the Council’s stage two complaint investigation did not adequately remedy the injustice caused to her. We will not investigate this, as this complaint has not yet completed all stages of the statutory procedure. The statutory children’s complaints procedure was set up to provide an independent, thorough response to complainant’s concerns. We expect people to complete all three stages of the statutory procedure before we will consider any flaws in how the Council investigated their concerns.
9. Ms X also complained the Council delayed by nine working days in arranging a stage three panel. A delay of this amount does not cause a significant injustice and so we will not investigate this further.

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Agreed action

10. Within one month of the final decision, the Council will apologise to Ms X and pay her £50 in recognition of the distress caused by the delay in completing the stage two investigation.

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Final decision

11. We have upheld the complaint about the delay at stage two because Council has agreed to resolve the complaint early by providing a proportionate remedy for the injustice caused. Any injustice caused by the stage three delay is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman