The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We have upheld this complaint because the Council delayed consideration of a complaint at stage two of the children’s statutory complaints procedure. The Council has now agreed to resolve the complaint by completing its stage two investigation and providing an appropriate remedy for the injustice caused to the complainants by its delay.
The complaint
The complainants, who I will call Mr & Mrs X, complain that the Council’s children’s services have failed to adequately support and safeguard their daughter, which has negatively impacted their whole family. Mr & Mrs X complained to the Ombudsman after the Council delayed responding to their complaints about these matters.
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 the complainant 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 In June 2020, Mr & Mrs X complained to the Council about the actions of its children’s services in relation to the support it was providing to their daughter. The Council responded at stage one of the statutory complaints procedure. Dissatisfied with the response, Mr & Mrs X escalated the complaint to stage two.
The investigating officer completed their stage two report in January 2021, but the Council did not send its stage two response to Mr & Mrs X until July 2021. At this stage Mr & Mrs X told the Council that matters had deteriorated and that there were other issues regarding the actions of children’s services, which had not been addressed in the Council’s stage two response. The Council offered to carry out a further stage two investigation to address these points and then if dissatisfied Mr & Mrs X could ask for both stage two complaints to be considered by a stage three panel together.
Mr & Mrs X agreed to the Council’s proposals and the investigating officer carried out their investigation during the Autumn of 2021, issuing their final report in January 2022. Mr & Mrs X complained to the Ombudsman because they have yet to receive a stage two response from the Council..
If we investigated this complaint, it is likely we would find the Council at fault. The Council delayed completing its first stage two investigation, then delayed issuing a response. Whilst the second stage two investigation was completed on time, the Council has still not issued a response.
The Council’s failure to provide Mr & Mrs X with stage two responses to their complaints within the statutory timeframes has caused a delay in them progressing their complaints to stage three, and receiving answers to the questions raised in their complaints.
I therefore asked the Council to consider remedying the injustice this caused Mr & Mrs X by issuing its stage two response to Mr & Mrs X second complaint. I have also asked the Council to write to Mr & Mrs X to apologise for the delays and to offer to make a payment to them of £500 to remedy the time and trouble they have been too pursuing their complaint and to reflect the significant delays in providing them with responses.
To its credit, the Council agreed to resolve the complaint and will issue its stage two response within one month of the date of my final decision, it will also apologise and offer to make the payment of £500 to Mr & Mrs X within a month.
Final decision
We have upheld this complaint. The Council has agreed to resolve the complaint early by issuing its stage two response, apologising for the delay, and providing an appropriate remedy payment for the injustice caused to Mr & Mrs X
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman