Summary: Mrs X complained the Council failed to provide her son with appropriate social care support from March 2021, and failed to complete appropriate assessments of his needs. The Council was at fault as it failed to investigate Mrs X’s complaint under the statutory children’s complaints procedure. The Council will arrange and start a stage 2 investigation under these procedures within one month of this decision. It will also make a symbolic payment for the uncertainty and time and trouble this caused Mrs X.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complained the Council has failed to provide her son Y, who is disabled and adopted, with appropriate social care support since March 2021. Mrs X further complained the Council failed to complete appropriate assessments of Y’s needs. Mrs X said this caused significant distress to the whole family and Y is still without adequate social care support. 

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What I have investigated

2. I have investigated whether the Council properly considered Mrs X’s complaint. I have not investigated the substantive matters for the reasons given in paragraph 21.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
4. If we are satisfied with a council’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)
5. Under our information sharing agreement, we will share this decision with the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted).

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How I considered this complaint

6. I spoke to Mrs X about her complaint and considered the information she provided.
7. I considered the Council’s response to Mrs X’s complaint.
8. I considered the relevant law, the children’s complaints procedure statutory guidance - Children's social care: getting the best from complaints, and our Guidance for practitioners on the children’s statutory complaints process.
9. Mrs X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.

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What I found

Child in Need

10. Section 17 of the Children Act 1989 defines a child in need as a child who “is unlikely to achieve or maintain, or to have the opportunity of achieving or maintaining, a reasonable standard of health or development without the provision for him of services by a local authority”. A child who is disabled is classed as a child in need.

Children’s Statutory Complaints Procedure

11. The Children Act 1989 and statutory guidance ‘Getting the Best from Complaints’ outlines a statutory complaints process which councils must follow for certain complaints about children’s services.
12. The statutory complaints process has three stages:
• local resolution by the Council (Stage 1);
• an investigation by an investigator who will prepare a detailed report and findings (Stage 2). The Council then issues an adjudication letter which sets out its response to the findings; and, if the person making the complaint asks;
• an independent panel to consider their representations (Stage 3).
13. Statutory guidance provides details of what may form the subject of a complaint under this procedure. This includes all council functions within Part 3 of the Children Act 1989, which sets out the services councils must provide for children and their families in their area. The guidance says a complaint may arise because of many things such as:
• an unwelcome or disputed decision;
• delay in decision making or provision of services;
• delivery or non-delivery of services including complaints procedures;
• application of eligibility and assessment criteria;
• the impact on a child or young person of the application of a local authority policy; and
• assessment, care management and review.

What happened

14. Mrs X has a child, Y, who has disabilities. He is, therefore, defined as a Child in Need (CIN).
15. In September 2021 Mrs X complained to the Council about one of Y’s assessments, non-delivery of social care support and a delay in decision making and provision of service.
16. The Council responded to Mrs X at stage 1. Mrs X was dissatisfied with the Council’s response and escalated her complaint to stage 2.
17. At the beginning of October, the Council responded to Mrs X at stage 2. It told her she had reached the end of the Council’s complaint process and directed her to us if she remained dissatisfied with its response. Mrs X complained to us.

My findings

18. Y is a Child in Need as a result of his disabilities. Mrs X’s complaint to the Council was about matters which the law is clear it should reply to using the statutory children’s complaints procedure. Not doing so was fault and meant the Council did not handle Mrs X’s complaint correctly. This caused Mrs X uncertainty about what the outcome of her complaint would have been had the Council considered it properly.

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Agreed action

19. The Council will within one month of this decision:
• arrange and start a stage 2 investigation into Mrs X’s complaints under the statutory children’s complaints procedure; and
• apologise and pay Mrs X £150 to acknowledge the avoidable uncertainty and time and trouble caused to her by failing to investigate her complaint under the statutory children’s complaints procedure

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Final decision

20. I have completed my investigation. I found fault and the Council has agreed to take action to remedy the injustice caused by that fault.

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Parts of the complaint that I did not investigate

21. I did not investigate the substantive matters Mrs X complained about because the Council has not yet properly considered them. If Mrs X remains unhappy at the conclusion of the children’s statutory complaints procedure she can, within 12 months of the Council’s final response, complain again to us.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman