The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We uphold Miss X’s complaint that the Council failed to consider her complaint within its children statutory complaints’ procedure. The Council has agreed to do so without further delay.
The complaint
The complainant, whom I will call Miss X, says the Council has failed to reply properly to a complaint made to it, in August 2021, about children services’ actions.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
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 an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended) Under our information sharing agreement, we will share the final decision with the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted).
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Miss X and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
The statutory complaints’ procedure 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.
The first stage of the procedure is local resolution. Councils have up to 20 working days to respond.
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 investigator and an independent person who is responsible for overseeing the investigation. Councils have up to 13 weeks to complete stage two of the process from the date of request.
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. The Council must hold the panel within 30 days of the date of request, and then issue a final response within 20 days of the panel hearing.
What happened Miss X complained to the Council in August 2021 that the Council’s children service team failed to support her disabled child under s17 Children Act. She also complained about assessments and related matters.
The Council replied at Stage One of the Children Act complaints process in September 2021. Miss X requested a Stage Two investigation at the end of September 2021. That should have been completed within a maximum of 65 working days. It still has not.
An investigation is likely to find fault causing Miss X injustice because of the complaint delays.
Agreed action
The Council has agreed within one month of my final decision to: Complete a stage two investigation and write to Miss X to inform her of the outcome, and provide her appropriate information about her rights under the process.
Pay her £175 to reflect the delays so far.
Final decision
I uphold this complaint with a finding of fault causing an injustice.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman