Summary: We have completed our investigation. The Council were at fault for failing to complete the statutory children’s complaints procedure. Mrs B experienced unnecessary delay and frustration because of this fault. The Council have agreed to re-start the statutory children’s complaints procedure at stage two without delay. The Council will also make a symbolic payment to Mrs B and apologise to her.

The complaint

1. Mrs B complains the council failed to provide acceptable support to her and her child. She says it failed to act properly when discussing and assessing domestic abuse and during an initial child protection conference. Mrs B says the Council have labelled her as ‘aggressive’ and has told lies about her.
2. Mrs B says the Council have failed to respond to her complaint in the proper manner.
3. She says the actions of the Council impacted her mental health which declined around the time of the complaint.
4. Mrs B complains fault by the Council has led to her losing her job and financial hardship and she is now in debt.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

5. 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 significant injustice, or that could cause injustice to others in the future we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
6. Under our information sharing agreement, we will share this decision with the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted).
7. If we are satisfied with an organisation’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

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What I have and have not investigated

8. I have investigated how the Council handled Mrs B’s complaint under the statutory children’s complaints procedure.
9. The statutory children’s complaints procedure was set up to provide children, young people and those involved in their welfare with access to an independent, thorough, and prompt response to their concerns. Because of this, we expect people to complete the complaints procedure before we will consider whether there were any flaws in how the Council investigated their concerns.
10. I have therefore not investigated Mrs B’s concerns about children’s services failing to assess and provide support to her child and about its conduct at the initial child protection conference.

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How I considered this complaint

11. I considered the complaint and information provided by Mrs B and the Council.
12. I referred to the Ombudsman’s Guidance on Remedies, a copy of which can be found on our website.
13. Mrs B and the Council had the opportunity to make comments on the draft decision. The comments received were considered before making a final decision.

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What I found

Law and guidance

14. 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. We also published practitioner guidance on the procedures, setting out our expectations.
15. The first stage of the procedure is local resolution. Councils have up to 20 working days to respond.
16. 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 investigating officer (IO) to look into the complaint and an independent person (IP) who is responsible for overseeing the investigation and ensuring its independence.
17. Following the investigation, a senior manager (the adjudicating officer) at the council should carry out an adjudication. The officer considers the IO report and any report from the IP. They decide what the council’s response to the complaint will be, including what action it will take. The adjudicating officer should then write to the complainant with a copy of the investigation report, any report from the independent person and the adjudication response.
18. The whole stage two process should be completed within 25 working days but guidance allows an extension for up to 65 working days where required.
19. Councils can refuse to consider a complaint if a complainant says they intend to take legal action or 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.

What happened

20. Mrs B made a complaint to the Council in August 2023. Mrs B complained to three Council departments (including children’s services). I will refer to these departments as department 1, department 2 and children's services.
21. At the start of October 2023 Mrs B complained again to children’s services.
22. In October the Council completed stage one of its complaint process from department 1.
23. In November 2023 department 2 acknowledged Mrs B’s complaint.
24. Mrs B complained again to the Council in December 2023, about matters to do with all three departments.
25. Department 2 responded to Mrs B at stage one of its complaint process in February 2024.
26. In March 2024 Mrs B asked for the children’s services complaint to be escalated to Stage 2.
27. Throughout this time Mrs B was in regular contact with Council departments about her and her child’s care and support needs.
28. In May 2024 the Council provided a local resolution response to Mrs B. This was a repeat of stage one of its corporate complaint process.
29. The Council apologised about the delay in formally replying. The Council said it knew Mrs B had asked for the complaint to be escalated to stage two of the statutory children’s complaint procedure. It told Mrs B it was trying to avoid the statutory children’s complaint procedure and decided to offer another response at ‘local resolution level.’
30. The Council told Mrs B the stage one response previously sent to her should have provided more detailed information about actions the Council intended to take.
31. Some of the complaint points were upheld and a financial remedy of £150 was offered to Mrs B.

My findings

32. It is unclear from evidence currently available when children’s services made a response at stage one of the corporate complaints process to Mrs B.
33. However, we know Mrs B asked for the complaint to be escalated to stage two of the statutory children’s complaint procedure in March 2024.
34. In August 2024 the Council told Mrs B it would progress her complaint to stage two of the statutory children’s complaint procedure. When we notified the Council of our intention to investigate Mrs B’s complaint it put her complaint on hold. We did not ask the Council to do this. We invited the Council to remedy the injustice we had already identified and asked the Council to re-start the procedure at stage two. We asked the Council to confirm it agreed with this plan.
35. The Council did not reply to the Ombudsman in August or September. We investigated Mrs B’s complaint. The Council did not comment until it received our draft decision in October 2024.
36. The Council failed to handle Mrs B’s complaint about children’s services in the right way. It failed to progress Mrs B’s complaint to stage two of the statutory children’s complaints procedure in March 2024, despite her request for it to do so. This was fault by the Council.
37. The Council said it misunderstood our communication in August. Had the Council reviewed our communication properly in August 2024 Mrs B would have avoided more unnecessary delay.

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Agreed action

38. To remedy the injustice to Mrs B from the fault by the Council, I recommend that, within four weeks of a final decision, the Council takes the following actions:
• Apologise to Mrs B in line with our guidance on Making an Effective Apology. We publish guidance on remedies which sets out our expectations for how organisations should apologise effectively to remedy injustice. The organisation should consider this guidance in making the apology I have recommended in my findings.
• Pay Mrs B a symbolic payment of £400. This is £50 for every month there was a delay in progressing to stage two of the statutory children’s complaints procedure from March 2024.
• Start stage two of the statutory children’s complaints procedure without further delay. Timescales set out in the statutory guidance ‘Getting the Best from Complaints’ should be adhered to at stage two and should Mrs B wish to further escalate her complaint, at stage three. If the investigation takes longer than 25 days at stage two, Mrs B should be informed of the reasons why and it should take no longer than 65 days to complete.
39. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Final decision

40. I have completed my investigation. There was fault by the Council. The action I have recommended is a suitable remedy for the injustice caused to Mrs B.

Investigator’s final decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman