The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s delay completing the statutory children’s complaints process because we are satisfied with the actions agreed to remedy this.
The complaint
Ms X complains the Council has delayed completing the statutory children’s complaints process.
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 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) Under our information sharing agreement, we will share this decision with the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted).
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Ms X and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
If we investigated this complaint it is likely we would find the Council at fault because it has not completed the stage 2 investigation within the statutory timescales. The Council confirmed it would start stage 2 on 9 April 2024 yet as of 11 September 2024 Ms X had not received the Council’s response.
We therefore asked to the Council to consider remedying the injustice caused by: providing Ms X with an apology for the delay; issuing its stage 2 response without further delay and; paying Ms X £150 for distress.
To its credit the Council agreed to resolve the complaint and will complete the actions at paragraph 7 within one month of this decision.
Final decision
We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because the Council has agreed to resolve the complaint early by providing a proportionate remedy for the injustice caused to Ms X.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman