Summary: Ms X complained about the way the Council assessed her and her children. The Council was at fault for failing to investigate her complaint using the statutory procedure. This caused Ms X to miss out on an independent investigation of her complaint. The Council has agreed to apologise, make a payment and offer her the opportunity to consider her complaint using the correct procedure. It will also make service improvements.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains about the way the Council assessed her and her children, she says, the Council:

1. failed to understand and support the needs of her disabled son;
2. assessed her home and family unfairly by failing to acknowledge her son’s additional needs; and
3. completed an inaccurate assessment.

2. Ms X says this has caused her significant distress because the Council judged her without understanding her family circumstances and her son’s disabilities.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused significant injustice, or that could cause injustice to others in the future we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
4. If we are satisfied with an organisation’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)
5. 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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What I have and have not investigated

6. I have investigated the process that the Council used to investigate Ms X’s complaint.
7. I have not investigated Ms X’s substantive complaints. I have explained why in paragraph 32.

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How I considered this complaint

8. I considered evidence provided by Ms X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
9. Ms 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

Legislation and guidance

Early help

10. Statutory guidance “Working Together to Safeguard Children” sets out the concept of ‘Early Help’. This is where a family can be supported by a range of professionals where there are low level needs that do not merit a child in need assessment by social care.

Section 17 duties

11. Section 17 of the Children Act 1989 says councils must safeguard and promote the welfare of children within their area who are in need.
12. A child is in need if:

• they are unlikely to achieve or maintain a reasonable standard of health or development unless the council provides support;
• their health or development is likely to be significantly impaired unless the council provides support; or
• they are disabled.

13. A family must consent to work with a council under section 17 child in need.

Council corporate complaint procedure

14. The Council has a two-stage corporate complaint procedure. The policy notes that complaints about some functions of children’s services will be excluded from this procedure because the statutory complaint procedure should be used.

Statutory complaints procedure

15. 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.
16. The first stage of the procedure is local resolution.
17. 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.
18. 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.
19. 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.

What happened?

20. I have summarised below some key events leading to Ms X’s complaint. This is not intended to be a detailed account of everything that happened.
21. Before November 2024, Ms X and her family were being supported by a Council early help team.
22. In early November, the early help team decided it was worried about Ms X and her children. It ended its involvement with the family and made a referral to the child in need team.
23. The child in need team completed an assessment about the needs of the children, which Ms X disagreed with. Ms X then decided shortly after to withdraw her consent to work with the child in need team.
24. In January 2025, Ms X complained to the Council that it had completed an inaccurate assessment and failed to understand and consider the needs of her family, particularly those of her disabled son.
25. The Council responded to Ms X’s complaint in March, using its corporate complaint procedure to do so. It upheld that it had failed to provide information within required timeframes and failed to tell her that it had allocated a new practitioner to work with her. It did not uphold any of Ms X’s other complaints.
26. The Council told Ms X that if she remained unhappy, she could escalate her complaint to stage two of the corporate complaint procedure, which she did a few days later.
27. The Council responded to Ms X’s stage two complaint in May 2025, noting it was satisfied with its handling of the matter at stage one, but acknowledged it should have considered the impact the assessment had on Ms X’s wellbeing. It also decided that its current approach to understanding neurodiversity needed to be more holistically considered which may have better supported the family.
28. The Council said it would complete several service improvements following Ms X’s complaint.

Findings

29. In this case, Ms X raised a complaint about the Council’s actions in relation to section 17 duties, this being actions related to the single assessment and child in need. Section 17 complaints are covered by the statutory children’s complaint procedure.
30. The Council did respond to Ms X’s stage one complaint. However, it only gave her the option of considering her complaint at stage two of the corporate complaint procedure if she remained unhappy.
31. The Council should have given her the option of the independent investigation at stage two of the statutory procedure and completed this when she remained unhappy with stage one.
32. 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, we expect a council to complete the complaints procedure. Therefore, I have not investigated Ms X’s substantive complaints about the Council’s actions.
33. The Council’s failure to investigate Ms X’s complaint using the statutory children’s complaint procedure was fault. This caused Ms X to miss out on the opportunity to have her complaint independently investigated and likely caused her frustration and uncertainty.

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Action

34. Within one month of the final decision the Council will:

• apologise to Ms X for the frustration and uncertainty caused by failing to follow the statutory complaints procedure;
• make a payment of £100 to Ms X to recognise the frustration and uncertainty caused by failing to follow the statutory complaints procedure;
• offer Ms X the opportunity to have her complaint investigated at stage two of the children’s statutory complaint procedure. If Ms X accepts this, the Council should progress with investigation of her complaint at stage two and confirm appointments of an investigating officer and independent person to Ms X; and
• provide an action plan on how it will ensure that complaints eligible to be investigated by way of the statutory procedure, follow that process.

35. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman