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 arranging a stage three panel by the end of June, apologising to the complainant and offering to make a payment to them 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 has delayed considering her complaint about the actions of the Council’s children’s services.

Back to top

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).

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

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

Back to top

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 is considering Ms X’s complaint under the statutory children’s complaints procedure and issued a response at stage two of that process in September 2022. Ms X asked the Council to escalate her complaint to stage three in October 2022.
12. There were several emails between Ms X and the Council about her stage three request and the Council was unclear the grounds for Ms X’s escalation and the remedy she was seeking. The Council say Ms X submitted a large amount of evidence which the Council say was not considered at stage two and it did not consider to be relevant. The Council offered to arrange an advocate to support her with her stage three complaint, Ms X agreed, and the complaint was escalated to stage three in March 2023. The Council says it is working towards agreeing a stage three panel meeting and says it expects this to be arranged by the end of June.

Assessment

13. I acknowledge that the Council has worked with Ms X in order to clarify her reasons for escalation to stage three and the remedy she seeks and that this and the large amount of information provided by Ms X may also have contributed to part of the delay in arranging a stage three panel.
14. However, on balance, if we were to investigate this complaint, it is likely we would find the Council at fault. This is because these factors do not account for the full period of delay and therefore the Council has delayed completing its stage three investigation within the statutory timeframe. This has meant Ms X has been to some time and trouble pursuing her complaint and has resulted in a delay in her receiving answers to the questions raised in her complaint.
15. We therefore asked the Council to apologise to Ms X and offer to make a payment to her of £100 to remedy the time and trouble she has been too pursuing her complaint.
16. To its credit, the Council agreed to resolve the complaint and has agreed with our recommendation. It will therefore arrange its stage three panel by the end of June. Within one month of the date of this final decision, it will also write to Ms X to apologise and offer to make a payment to her of £100.

Back to top

Final decision

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

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman