Summary: Mrs X complains about the Council’s handling following a disclosure of sexual abuse by her child, Child Y. There was no fault in the Council’s child protection enquiry into the allegation or the support offered to the family at the time. The Council took significantly longer than it should to respond to Mrs X’s stage two complaint. The Council should also have done more to act on requests for specific help made by Mr Z on Mrs X’s behalf. The Council has agreed to apologise and pay £100 to Mrs X for the injustice caused by the complaint response delay. The Council will also offer to complete an Education, Health and Care needs assessment of Child Y as Mr Z requested.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains about the Council’s handling following disclosure of sexual abuse by her child, Child Y. Mrs X complains the Council failed to:

• conduct a lawful child protection enquiry;
• provide adequate and ongoing support to Child Y and their parents;
• implement safeguarding measures in school; and,
• provide timely responses to Mrs X’s complaints.

2. Mrs X says Child Y continues to suffer from the impact of the abuse and has started to display some self-harming behaviours because of delays in accessing therapy and support.
3. Mrs X wants the Council to accept the failures in its handling of this case, to apologise and compensate her family so they can pay for therapy and support to further help Child Y.
4. Mrs X’s representative, Mr Z has made this complaint to us on her behalf.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

5. We cannot investigate a complaint if it is about action taken by or on behalf of any local policing body in connection with the investigation or prevention of crime. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5, Section 26, paragraph 2 as amended)
6. We cannot investigate most complaints about what happens in schools. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5, paragraph 5(2), as amended)
7. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word fault to refer to these. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in the decision making, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
8. If we are satisfied with an organisation’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

9. I have spoken to Mr Z and considered the information he (and Mrs X) has provided in support of this complaint.
10. I have considered the information the Council has provided in response to my enquiries.
11. Under the information sharing agreement between the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman and the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted), we will share this decision with Ofsted.
12. Mr Z and the Council now have an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I will consider their comments before making a final decision.

Back to top

What I found

Relevant guidance

13. Under section 47 of the Children Act 1989, where a council has reasonable cause to suspect that a child in their area is suffering or is likely to suffer significant harm, it has a duty to make such enquiries as it considers necessary to decide whether to take any action to safeguard or promote the child’s welfare. Such enquiries should be initiated where there are concerns about abuse or neglect.
14. Councils should act decisively to protect children from abuse and neglect including starting care proceedings where existing interventions are insufficient.
15. Anyone who has concerns about a child’s welfare should make a referral to children’s social care and should do so immediately if there is a concern that the child is suffering significant harm or is likely to do so.
16. The council should make initial enquiries of agencies involved with the child and family, for example, health visitor, GP, schools and nurseries. The information gathering at this stage enables the council to assess the nature and level of any harm the child may be facing. The assessment may result in:

• no further action;
• a decision to carry out a more detailed assessment of the child’s needs; or
• a decision to convene a strategy meeting.

17. Section 47 of the Act places a duty on agencies, but mainly the council and the police, to make “such enquiries as they consider necessary to enable them to decide whether to take action to safeguard or promote the welfare of a child in their area”.
18. If the information gathered under section 47 supports concerns and the child may remain at risk of significant harm the social worker will arrange an initial child protection conference (ICPC). The ICPC decides what action is needed to safeguard the child. This might include making the child a ‘child in need’ (CiN) and implementing a safety plan.
19. Under the Children Act 1989, councils are required to provide services for children in need for the purposes of safeguarding and promoting their welfare. Where a referral is accepted under section 17 the council should lead a multi-agency assessment and compete it within 45 working days. Where the council’s children’s social care decides to provide services, it should develop a multiagency child in need plan which sets out which organisations and agencies will provide which services to the child and family. The plan must be reviewed within three months of the start of the child in need plan and further reviews should take place at least every six months thereafter. (Working Together to Safeguard Children) 
20. A child with special educational needs (SEN) may have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). This sets out the child’s needs and what arrangements should be made to meet them.
21. There are two ways of triggering a requirement for the Council to make a decision about SEN needs:

• A parent, school or young person (or their representative) makes a request the Council carry out an assessment of the child’s SEN; or,
• The Council becomes responsible for a child/young person

22. In either case, councils must decide whether to carry out an EHC needs assessment of the child or young person within six weeks and must notify the parent or young person it is considering doing so (section 36 Children and Families Act 2014).
23. The Council’s corporate complaint process consists of two stages. The Council’s published policy says it will acknowledge all complaints in three working days. It also says the Council will respond to stage one complaints in 15 working days and stage two complaints in 20 working days.

What happened

24. This chronology of key events does not cover everything that happened.
25. Child Y is under ten years old. In mid-December 2020, Child Y disclosed to Mrs X that they had been sexually abused by another child at their school. Mrs X reported Child Y’s allegation to the school and Council the day after and a report was also made to the police.
26. The Council completed some initial enquiries and held a multi-agency strategy discussion on 21 December 2020. The Police confirmed it could not progress its investigation into Child Y’s allegation because it had been unable to identify the perpetrator and there was no possibility of charging them with a criminal offence. This was because the perpetrator was likely to be a child under the age of criminal responsibility.
27. The Council decided to complete further child protection enquiries to determine if there was any continued risk of harm to Child Y and their siblings. The Council’s allocated Social Worker completed a visit to Mrs X’s home and spoke to Child Y and their siblings separately.
28. The Council completed a further multi-agency review meeting on 11 January 2021 to check the outcome of further investigations by Child Y’s school. The school had been unable to find any CCTV footage of the alleged incident. The school explained that children from different year groups and classes were being kept in ‘bubbles’ as a precaution against COVID-19 and there was little if any chance of Child Y encountering a child from another year group.
29. The Council decided the threshold for further child protection enquiries was not met in this case. It instead decided to undertake further assessment of Child Y and their three siblings to help determine what support they may all need following the incident.
30. The Social Worker completed three visits (two virtual and one in person) to Mrs X’s home to speak to her four children and their parents. The Social Worker completed direct work with Child Y about keeping safe and made referrals for them to receive counselling and other support from specialist services.
31. In late February 2021, the Social Worker completed Child in Need assessments for all four children. The outcome was for Children Social Care involvement to cease but for the family to continue to receive support from the Council’s Strengthening Families and Keeping Families Together Teams.
32. Child Y and their family continued to receive holistic support from the Council until late January 2022 when Mrs X agreed for the Council’s involvement to end. Child Y has moved to another school during this time.

Analysis

Failure to conduct a lawful child protection enquiry

33. The Council appears to have acted promptly in response to Mrs X’s referral. It convened a strategy discussion soon after receiving the referral and ensured all relevant parties were involved.
34. The Council also completed its Child in Need assessments of Mrs X’s children within the statutory timescale of 45 working days.
35. The Council’s involvement and approach appears to have been dictated by the school’s inability to obtain evidence to substantiate Child Y’s allegations and the police’s decision not to take further action.
36. While this has understandably upset Mrs X, the Council has no remit to insist other bodies such as the police should pursue matters in a particular way or take a specific course of action.
37. We are not an appeals body. Where Council Officers take a decision having properly considered all the available evidence and reached a professional judgement, we cannot intervene to replace the views reached with our own.

Failure to provide adequate and ongoing support to Child Y and their parents

38. The Council’s records show the allocated Social Worker made referrals for Child Y to received specialist support soon after the decision was made not to progress to further child protection enquiries in late January 2021.
39. Child Y and their family continued to receive various forms of support from the Council for just over 12 months following the disclosure of sexual abuse. This support included allocated Council Officers undertaking specific work with Child Y and their siblings around safety, as well as work with Mrs X, her current partner and Child Y’s father (Mr Q) around supporting their children.
40. The Council’s evidence appears to show that it sought Mrs X, her partner and Mr Q’s views on how they felt things were going and whether the support being provided should continue. The Council only appears to have ceased providing support on Mrs X’s agreement. As a result, there was no fault in the Council’s approach.
41. The Council’s stage two complaint response does not however align with this earlier approach to offering support. Mr Z indicated in his stage two complaint on Mrs X’s behalf that Child Y continued to display concerning behaviour and appeared to still need support or further therapy. Mr Z also requested an Education, Health and Care needs assessment for Child Y.
42. The Council response to Mr Z’s requests is disappointing as it suggests Mrs X could make these requests to the relevant Council team if needed. It is unclear why the Council needed further direct approaches from Mrs X to act upon the requests made by her representative. This was fault as it seems to unnecessarily hinder Mrs X’s access to help for Child Y, which my recommendation below seeks to address. In response to my draft decision, Mrs X has confirmed she would still like an EHC needs assessment and further support for Child Y from the Council.

Failing to implement safeguarding measures in school

43. As explained in paragraph 36 above, the Council has no remit to insist Child Y’s former school takes specific action. This includes any changes to the school’s safeguarding measures.
44. The Council appears to have already addressed this element of Mrs X’s concerns in its responses to her stage one and two complaints. There appears nothing more we can now helpfully add to the Council’s responses in respect of this issue.

Failing to provide timely responses to Mrs X’s complaints

45. Mr Z made a stage one complaint to the Council on Mrs X’s behalf on 25 August 2021. The Council responded on 15 September 2021, which was in 15 working days and within its published timescale.
46. Mr Z escalated Mrs X’s complaints to stage two on 10 January 2022. The Council sent its response on 24 June 2022. This was 115 working days following the date of receipt. The Council took 93 working days longer than its 20 working day timescale to respond to this stage two complaint. There is no indication the Council notified Mr Z of the delay at the time or sought to explain why its response was late.
47. The Council’s stage two complaint response also appears incomplete. It appears to include an internal note to include an explanation for the delayed response, which was then not completed before the response was sent. This will no doubt have added to Mrs X’s frustration and caused unnecessary confusion. My recommendations below seek to address the injustice caused to Mrs X by this.

Back to top

Agreed action

48. Within one month of my final decision, the Council has agreed to:

• apologise and make a payment of £100 to Mrs X for the injustice caused by its significantly delayed and incomplete stage two complaint response;
• make arrangements to complete an Education, Health and Care needs assessment of Child Y; and,
• discuss with Mrs X any further support or therapy it can offer for Child Y.

49. Within three months of my final decision the Council agrees to review its systems for monitoring complaints to ensure better tracking, the timeliness and accuracy of responses and provides regular progress updates to complainants when responses are delayed.
50. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

Back to top

Final Decision

51. I have completed my investigation and found find fault with the Council. This fault has caused Child Y and Mrs X injustice and it has agreed to take action to remedy that injustice.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman