Cornwall Council

The Ombudsman's final decision

Summary: We have upheld Mrs X’s complaint because the Council delayed considering this under the statutory children’s complaints process. The Council has agreed to resolve the complaint early by providing a proportionate remedy for the injustice caused to Mrs X.

The complaint

Mrs X complains the Council has delayed at stage 2 and 3 of the statutory children’s complaints process and failed to provide her with the financial support needed as a foster carer, causing 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) Under our information sharing agreement, we will share this decision with the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted).

How I considered this complaint

I considered information provided by Mrs X and the Council.

I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

My assessment

We expect councils to complete the statutory children’s complaints process before we will consider a complaint.

If we were to investigate it is likely we would find fault causing Mrs X injustice because the Council has delayed beyond the statutory timescales at stage 2 and stage 3 of the complaints process. We will not investigate the substantive complaint while this process remains outstanding.

We therefore asked the Council to consider remedying the injustice caused by taking the following actions to resolve the complaint early, within one month of this decision: Provide an apology to Mrs X, taking account of our guidance on remedies which sets out our expectations for how organisations should apologise effectively to remedy injustice, Convene and hold a stage 3 review panel within one month and then complete the stage within the relevant timescales, and Pay Mrs X £150 for distress caused by the delay.

Agreed action

To its credit the Council agreed to resolve the complaint and will complete the actions at paragraph 8, to put things right.

Final decision

We have upheld this complaint because the Council has agreed to resolve the complaint early by providing a proportionate remedy for the injustice caused to Mrs X.

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman