Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council has dealt with complaints about the care of children who were previously cared for by the complainant. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will call Miss X, complained to the Council about how it had dealt with matters relating to three children who Miss X had previously cared for. Miss X complained to the Ombudsman about how the Council had dealt with her complaints about these matters.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
3. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint unless we are satisfied the council knows about the complaint and has had an opportunity to investigate and reply. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(5))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

The statutory complaints procedure

6. 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.
7. The first stage of the procedure is local resolution. Councils have up to 20 working days to respond.
8. 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.
9. 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

10. Miss X complained to the Council who considered the complaint under the statutory children’s complaints procedure. An independent investigation was carried out at stage two of the process. Miss X said she was happy with the stage two investigation report and outcomes, but said she was unhappy with other recent actions of the Council and therefore asked the Council to progress her complaint to stage three.
11. The Council concluded that it could not proceed with progression to stage three as Miss X said she was satisfied with the outcome of the stage two investigation and had raised new more recent issues which hadn’t been considered at stage two. It therefore raised a new complaint and considered some of the recent issues Miss X had raised at stage one of the statutory complaint’s procedure, giving Miss X the opportunity to escalate them to stage two.
12. The stage one response to Miss X’s second complaint did not address all the issues she raised because they were matters which were being considered as part of ongoing court proceedings, due to conclude later this month. The Council said Miss X could either ask the Council to consider the issues it had considered at stage two of the procedure, or she could wait until court proceedings had concluded and all matters could be considered under one complaint.

Assessment

13. I will not investigate the substantive issues raised by Miss X in her complaint. This is because her complaint is premature as it has not completed all three stages of the statutory complaint’s procedure. Once it has, Miss X may raise a new complaint with us and ask to consider it further.
14. I will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about how the Council has dealt with her complaint. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council. Whilst I appreciate Miss X’s frustration with the complaints process, a stage three panel can only consider the adequacy of a stage two investigation and not any new issues not previously considered at stage two. Miss X said that she was satisfied with the stage two report and outcomes, but not with the recent actions of the Council. Therefore I do not consider the Council to be at fault for raising a new complaint to consider these matters.
15. We are also unlikely to find fault with the Council for not considering some issues that are subject to court proceedings. Councils can refuse to consider a complaint if investigating a complaint could prejudice concurrent court proceedings. However, after the proceedings have ended, a complainant can resubmit the complaint for the council to consider. We expect complainants to then complete the statutory complaints procedure before we will consider the complaint. The Council has just suspended the process not refused it.
16.  

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Final decision

17. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman