Are children’s voices being heard? Two Ombudsman reports highlight issues councils face dealing with statutory process
Is the Children’s statutory complaints process working to support the very children it is designed to help?
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman is calling for the statutory complaints process for cases involving children to be urgently reviewed, following the publication of separate investigation reports into the way two London councils have handled complaints.
The Ombudsman has uncovered systemic issues with the way London Borough of Lewisham operated its complaints procedure. Its investigation found families in the borough have often experienced lengthy delays and, in some cases, have been denied their right to access all three stages of the complaints procedure.
While in Harrow, the Ombudsman found the council had failed to follow the proper procedure when considering a family’s complaint about a lack of promised overnight respite care for their Disabled child, despite being reminded by the Ombudsman to do so.
Ms Amerdeep Somal, Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, said:
“The regulations and statutory guidance for councils to consider Children’s complaints are almost 20 years old. Councils tell us the process is overly complex, costly to run and does not always deliver good outcomes for the children at the heart of the complaints.
“Is this process is still fit for purpose in the modern local government landscape? We know some councils find the process difficult to follow, and this can result in children’s voices not being heard loudly enough.
“Even though we appreciate the difficulties councils face, we have issued these two reports because we will continue to hold councils to account when they do not meet the standards expected of them by the children and families in their area.”
Last year the Ombudsman upheld 96 per cent of the complaints it investigated about the statutory process, compared with 80 per cent of complaints about Children’s services more widely.
To support better complaint handling, the Ombudsman also offers advice to local councils on cases before they reach the Ombudsman stage. A quarter of all enquiries it received from councils last year were about the Children’s statutory process.
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman remedies injustice and shares learning from investigations to help improve public, and adult social care, services. In the Lewisham case, the council has agreed to write to complainants who did not proceed to stage two of the procedure, apologise to them, and invite them to do so. It will also complete stage two of the procedure for the 12 complaints whose stage two investigations were ongoing.
It has also agreed to ensure staff involved in the children’s statutory process understand what is required to progress a complaint to stage two.
In Harrow, the council has agreed to apologise to the family, and pay them a combined £700 for the distress, worry and frustration caused by its faults.
It will also ensure it will start and complete stage two of the family’s complaints in the required timescale, and the same should apply if the family wish to take their complaint to stage three.
Article date: 24 July 2025