Summary
Mrs C raised a number of complaints about the social work department's involvement with her daughter and grandchildren. She contacted us because she did not feel that the council had dealt with her concerns appropriately. The council admitted failings but said they had taken action to ensure that staff adhered to the correct procedures in future.
We upheld Mrs C's complaints that the council had failed to respond or delayed in responding to her letters and had failed to provide her with a written response to the points she had raised. We noted that the council had already taken some action to address the failings they identified when looking at her complaint, but made further recommendations to ensure that the action taken is carried out and explained to Mrs C.
Recommendations
We recommended that the council: • write to the Ombudsman to explain what action the executive director for social work has taken in response to this complaint and provide evidence that any measures for change have been implemented; • apologise to Mrs C for not answering her complaint fully in the first instance; and • provide a written response to the outstanding concerns listed in Mrs C's email.
Related reading
View Decision Report 201101967 as a PDF (22.17 KB) Updated: March 13, 2018