Summary: We uphold Miss X’s complaint that the Council failed to consider her complaint within its children statutory complaints’ procedure. The Council has agreed to do so without further delay.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I will call Miss X, says the Council has failed to reply properly to her complaint about provision of help and support, including accommodation, when she was 17.

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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. Under our information sharing agreement, we will share the final decision with the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted).

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Miss X 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 that aged 17, she presented as homeless and the Council did not follow the statutory guidance on 16 and 17 year olds who may be homeless and/or require accommodation. She says she was not given the necessary information to make an informed decision about what to do and instead was steered into accepting help under the homelessness route rather than s20 accommodation under Children Act. This means she lost the opportunity to qualify for services under the latter as a looked after child, then as a ‘formerly relevant’ child.
11. An investigation is likely to find fault causing the complainant injustice because this is a subject matter which falls within the Children Act statutory complaints scheme. The Council has refused to investigate or reply in detail to the complaint for reasons which are not relevant to the statutory procedure. In particular, the speculated threat of court proceedings is not sufficient to stay the complaints procedure. And as Miss X would still be in receipt of support if the alleged fault had not occurred, any delay in her complaining is not a reason to refuse the complaint.

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Agreed action

12. The Council has agreed within one month of this decision to:
• Complete a stage one investigation and write to Miss X to inform her of the outcome, ensuring it provides her appropriate information about her rights under the process.

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Final decision

13. I uphold this complaint with a finding of fault causing an injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman