The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We uphold Ms X’s complaint that the Council delayed in considering her complaint within its Children Act statutory complaints’ procedure. The Council has agreed to make a payment for the injustice caused by this delay.
The complaint
The complainant, whom I will call Ms X, says the Council delayed in replying to her complaint made to it, in early 2021, about the content and preparation of a section seven report.
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).
We cannot investigate a complaint about the start of court action or what happened in court. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5A, paragraph 1/3, as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Ms 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 Ms X complained in 2021 about the content and preparation of a section seven report. As part of private law proceedings involving children, the court may ask the Council to produce a section 7 report. The court will then consider the report as part of its decision making.
Because section 7 reports form part of court proceedings, we have no jurisdiction to investigate their preparation or content.
The Council replied to Ms X at stage one of the Children Act statutory complaints’ process in February 2021. Ms X requested escalation to Stage Two. The Council completed this in February 2022. Ms X requested an escalation to Stage Three and the Council completed this in August 2022.
An investigation is likely to find fault causing Ms X an injustice, because the Council has failed to comply with the Children Act statutory complaints’ procedure regulations. The whole process should have taken a maximum of 29 weeks. Instead it took 18 months.
Agreed action
The Council has agreed to pay Ms X £300 for the injustice caused in the complaints’ procedure delays.
Final decision
I uphold this complaint with a finding of fault causing an injustice.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman