Summary: We have upheld this complaint because the Council delayed considering a complaint at stage two of the children’s statutory complaints procedure between May 2022 and August 2023. The Council has agreed to make a payment to the complainant to remedy the time and trouble they have been too. There is insufficient evidence of fault in how the Council has dealt with the complaint since August 2023.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains about the support provided to her and her adopted son by the Council. Ms X asked the Ombudsman to intervene afters he did not receive a stage two response to her complaint.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
3. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
4. Under our information sharing agreement, we will share this decision with the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted).

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

The statutory complaints procedure

7. 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.
8. The first stage of the procedure is local resolution, where councils have up to 20 working days to respond.
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. The statutory guidance says that if a complaint has been accepted at stage one the local authority is obliged to ensure the complaint proceeds to stages two and three if the complainant requests this.

Assessment

12. The Council considered Ms X’s complaint at stage one of the statutory complaint’s procedure. In May 2022 Ms X escalated her complaint to stage two. In August 2022 the Council were informed that the investigator and independent person had withdrawn from the investigation process.
13. Ms X contacted the Council again in August 2023 and asked for an update as to the progress of her complaint. The Council apologised to Ms X for the delay in not proceeding with the complaint sooner.
14. Since August 2023, there have been email exchanges between Ms X and the Council. Ms X has concerns about how information would be shared with the investigator and independent person and wants it to be redacted and wants a specific digital encryption to be used. Ms X has also submitted information requests to the Council regarding its complaints and data protection processes.
15. The Council has agreed to send anonymous information to potential investigators and independent persons and share their names with Ms X before proceeding with an investigation. However, it would not agree to redacting information shared during the investigation because this would hamper a full and fair investigation. The Council has said that not all investigators and independent persons have access to the specific digital encryption Ms X is requesting but would use other secure methods of communication.
16. I will not investigate how the Council has dealt with Ms X’s complaint since August 2023. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault. The Council has responded to Ms X’s questions about how information will be shared during the process and the Council’s proposal about how it intends to move forward with an investigation is reasonable and justified. If Ms X wishes to proceed with the stage two investigation as per the Council’s proposal this is an option that remains open to her. The criteria for an early referral to the Ombudsman has not been met.
17. However, if we were to investigate this complaint it is likely we would find the Council at fault for how the Council dealt with the complaint prior to August 2023. This is because between May 2022 and August 2023 there was a delay in the Council considering the complaint and issuing Ms X with a stage two response. This has meant Ms X went to some significant time and trouble pursuing her complaint.
18. We therefore asked the Council to offer to make a payment to Ms X of £300 to remedy the time and trouble she has been too pursuing her complaint. To its credit, the Council agreed to resolve the complaint and has agreed with our recommendation. It will therefore offer to make a payment to Ms X of £300 within one month of the date of this decision.

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Final decision

19. We have upheld this complaint. The Council has agreed to resolve the complaint early by providing an appropriate remedy.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman