The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision to take a child into care. That is because we are satisfied with the actions the Council has agreed to take.
The complaint
Mrs X complained about the Council’s decision to remove her child, Y from her care. She said it was based on false information. She said following the Council’s decision to remove Y, he was assaulted by a foster carer. She also complained about her contact arrangements with Y. Mrs X said the Council’s decision making had caused Y and herself severe distress.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we are satisfied with the actions an organisation has taken or proposes to take. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(7), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mrs X complained about the Council’s decision to remove Y from her care. She said Y was assaulted whilst in foster care. She is also unhappy about how the Council arranged contact between her and Y whilst Y was in foster care. Mrs X said the Council’s actions had caused her and Y significant distress.
If we investigated this complaint, it is likely we would find the Council at fault as it failed to consider Mrs X’s complaints under the Children’s Statutory Complaint’s procedure. Therefore, it did not exercised its discretion properly when it said it would not investigate.
We asked the Council to consider remedying the injustice caused by its actions by: Apologising to Mrs X for any avoidable distress caused by not investigating under the Children’s Statutory Complaints Procedure.
Starting its consideration of Mrs X’s complaints under the Children’s Statutory Complaints Procedure and providing its stage one response within 20 working days of our final decision.
As the Council agreed to our proposed actions, we have decided not to investigate this complaint further.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because we are satisfied with the actions the Council has agreed to take.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman