Summary: We have upheld this complaint because the Council delayed considering a complaint under the children’s statutory complaints procedure. The Council has now agreed to resolve the complaint by completing a stage two investigation without delay and offering to make a payment to the complainant to remedy the time and trouble they have been too.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will call Ms X, complains that the Council failed to protect her and her property and failed to promote her welfare and development when she was in the Council’s care between 2001 and 2017. Ms X complained to the Ombudsman with the help of her advocate after the Council failed to provide him with a response at stage two of the statutory children’s complaints procedure.

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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 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.
10. The statutory guidance says that If a complaint has entered stage one the local authority is obliged to ensure the complaint proceeds to stages two and three if the complaint requests this.

What happened

11. The Council responded to a complaint from Ms X at stage one of the statutory procedure. Dissatisfied, Ms X asked the Council to escalate her complaint to stage two in September 2022.
12. In January, the Council apologised to Ms X for the delay in progressing her complaint which it said was due to a backlog of complaints awaiting allocation to investigators. The Council has told the Ombudsman that it is due to allocate an investigator to Ms X’s complaint imminently.

Assessment

13. If we were to investigate this complaint, it is likely we would find the Council at fault. This is because the Council has failed to adhere to the statutory timeframes for considering Ms X’s complaint at stage two of the procedure. This has caused Ms X and injustice as she has not received answers to questions raised in her complaint and she has gone to some time and trouble perusing the matter.
14. We therefore asked the Council to start a stage two investigation into Ms X’s complaint without delay and complete it within the statutory deadline, advising Ms X of her right to progress his complaint to stage three if dissatisfied. We also asked the Council to apologise to Ms X and offer to make a payment to her of £200 to remedy the time and trouble she has been too pursuing her complaint.
15. To its credit, the Council agreed to resolve the complaint and has agreed with our recommendation. It will therefore start its stage two investigation without delay and write to Ms X within one month to apologise and offer to make a payment to her of £200.

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Final decision

16. 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