Ms A complained that Caerphilly County Borough Council (“the Council”) would not consider her complaint at stage 2 of the Council’s Social Services Complaints Procedure.
The Ombudsman found that the Council would not consider Ms A’s complaint at Stage 2 because the complaint was regarding a Child Impact Report (“CIR”) which the Council said Ms A had the opportunity to challenge in Court. However, the Ombudsman found that whilst Ms A’s complaint was in regard to a CIR, other issues were identified which did not concern the CIR, and these issues could have been escalated to Stage 2 of the Social Services Complaints Procedure.
The Ombudsman decided to settle the complaint without an investigation on the bases that within 4 weeks the Council will: a) Write to Ms A to outline the process of escalating the issues identified by the Ombudsman to Stage 2 of the Social Services Complaints Procedure