The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the support the Council provided to Ms X’s child, as a Child in Need, after an assessment. This is because the Council has agreed to complete a stage two investigation in line with the three stage children act procedures and this is an appropriate response.
The complaint
Ms X was unhappy because the Council assessed her child, who is a Child in Need, and decided to step down the level of support it provided to them. Ms X said this caused significant upheaval and she wants a full investigation into her complaints.
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
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.
The three-stage 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. This independence is not available to complaints put through the corporate complaint procedures. Because of this, we expect people to complete the statutory complaints procedure before we will consider a complaint about related matters.
Ms X told us about her concerns and the Council’s response, which she was unhappy with. The evidence shows, the Council initially replied to Ms X under its corporate complaint procedure, where it should have considered this complaint under the statutory procedure.
As highlighted in paragraphs five and six, the three-stage procedure is considered best practice and has independent oversight. This is provided by an independent investigator at stage two, and an independent review panel at stage three, should Ms X be unhappy with the outcome at stage two.
I wrote to the Council and asked it to consider a complaint under this procedure and to its credit it agreed to do so, to resolve the complaint early. It agreed it would write to Ms X with an apology and complete a stage two investigation within 65 working days.
Because I am satisfied this addresses any injustice caused to Ms X by not doing this sooner, and because of the points I made in paragraph six, we will not investigate this complaint.
Final decision
We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because the Council has agreed to complete a stage two investigation in line with the three stage children act procedures.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman