Annual Report - Children and Families

This report provides information for the Statutory Children’s Complaints and Representations Service and the Corporate Feedback Procedure for Children and Families services, for the period 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021.  The report and service is provided in accordance with the Complaints and Representations Procedures established under the Children Act 1989 and the Local Authority Act 1970.

The Procedures were amended from 1 September 2006 by The Children Act 1989 Representations Procedure (England) Regulations 2006, and ‘Getting the Best from Complaints’, the accompanying guidance.  

The statutory complaints procedure

The Statutory Procedure provides a Procedure for making representations about the discharge by a Local Authority of its functions under Part 3 and specified functions under Parts 4 and 5 of The Children Act 1989, certain functions under 2002 Act and functions regarding Special Guardianship support services.

There are three stages to the Statutory Complaints Procedure:

Stage 1 - Local resolution

This stage is usually carried out by a Team Manager, who is required to carry out an investigation by discussing the complaint with the relevant practitioners and the complainant and taking into account any evidence which is held by the Local Authority, before making an informed finding on each specific complaint. There is a timescale of 20 working days to complete this stage. 

Stage 2 - Independent investigation

This stage involves the commissioning of an Independent Investigating Officer (IIO) and an Independent Person (IP) who will carry out an evidence-based investigation by meeting with various practitioners concerned and viewing evidence held on the Local Authority files. The IIO and IP will each prepare a report, including recommendations for the service to consider. The responsible Assistant Director will then consider the reports and recommendations and prepare a response to the complainant detailing whether they accept the findings and recommendations, before all reports and responses are sent to the complainant.  There is a timescale of 65 working days to complete this stage. 

The Complaints Team are required to accept all requests for a Stage 2 Investigation, however attempts are always made to try and resolve the issues locally, by the Complaints Team offering to meet the complainant along with the relevant Head of Service.  

Stage 3 - Complaint review panel

This stage involves the commissioning of three independent Panel members, who will attend a Panel meeting alongside the IIO and IP, the complainant, a representative from the service, the Complaints Manager, a Clerk to the Panel and anyone else who is considered to be required. The Panel will consider the adequacy of the Stage 2 Investigation in light of any additional information provided by the complainant.  Panel will reach a view as to whether any findings need to be overturned and whether any additional recommendations need to be implemented.  The report provided by Panel will be shared with the Local Authority and the Director for Children’s Services (DCS) will prepare a response to the complainant which will detail whether the recommendations are accepted.  The Panel report and response from the DCS is then shared with the complainant. 

Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO)

In the event that a complainant remains dissatisfied following exhaustion of all three stages of the complaints procedure they can take their complaint to the LGO.  A complainant can access the LGSCO at any point but the LGSCO normally provides the Local Authority with the opportunity to process through all stages of the complaints procedure unless they decide otherwise.  Complaints referred back to the Local Authority to process are classed as ‘premature referral’ complaints.  If the Local Authority take the decision to refuse to investigate a complaint or refuse to escalate the complaints to the next stage of the procedure, a complainant may then also approach the LGSCO. 

The corporate complaints procedure

The Corporate Complaints Procedure can be utilised when the representation does not fit the criteria to be investigated via the Statutory Complaints Procedure and is regarding a non-statutory service or if the representation is being made in the complainants own right about a service which they have personally received, subject to the specific detail of the complaint.  

There are two stages to the Corporate Complaints Procedure:

Stage 1 - local resolution

This stage usually involves a Team Manager investigating the complaint by conducting discussions with staff members and liaising with the complainant.  The Team Manager will then reach a conclusion in terms of the findings of the complaint. The timescale of this stage is 20 working days.  

Stage 2 - internal review

A complainant can submit a request for a Stage 2 Review; however, the Complaints Team have discretion in whether this is accepted.  The complainant must provide sufficient evidence to warrant this.  If accepted, a senior manager will review the stage 1 response alongside the evidence supplied by the complainant and will reach a finding on each aspect of the complaint.  The timescale for completing this stage is 25 working days.  

Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO)

The option to approach the LGSCO is available to the complainant for the Corporate Feedback Procedure, as it would be for the Statutory Procedure.  

Key numbers and initial overview - 2020/21

• A total of 230 complaints investigated through the different stages of the statutory and corporate complaints procedures
• 264 complaints for the whole service
• 65% of completed complaints responded to within prescribed timescales
• 12% of completed stage 1 complaints found upheld, 39% found not upheld, 44% found partially upheld.
• 197 matters recorded under the duty category
• 41 matters considered by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman

Composition of total feedback received

The chart below provides a general overview of the total amount of feedback which has been recorded by the Complaints Team.  For the purpose of the below chart some feedback has been categorised together, such as duty and Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) matters, these shall be further broken down as the report progresses. 

Duty matters

A total of 197 matters have been recorded under the duty category.  The following chart provides a breakdown of how these have been categorised. 

5% - Issue resolved

24% - Passed to team concerned directly

16% - Awaiting information from complainant

55% - Complaint refused *

*In respect of the complaints which have been refused further investigation, the chart below provides further detail on the reasons for refusal:  

57% - Subject to ongoing Court proceedings

19% - Unable to achieve desired outcome

14% - Lack of sufficient interest

7% - Historic in nature

3% - Relate to an outside organisation

Duty matters by operational leadership

LAC and Disability Services: 30%

Partnership and Development: <1% 

Education and Skills: 15%

Specialist Safeguarding, Targeted Services and Youth Offending Services: 54% 

Matters categorised as 'pending further information' are not contained in these figures.

Feedback categorised under the duty umbrella, remains a high figure and apportions a large amount of the Complaints Teams work.  All feedback which is received relating to Children and Families Services requires assessing, to determine if it is eligible for further investigation.  The 197 matters referred to above, have therefore been through a detailed screening assessment to determine the correct avenue for the feedback to follow.  Of particular note is the 55% of complaints which have been refused; compared to 35% in the preceding year.  Complaints which are refused further investigation can be subject to scrutiny by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman and it is therefore imperative that the decision reached is evidence based and is in line with the legislation which the Complaints Team are duty bound to follow.  

Statutory Stage 1 Complaints: Key Themes

Numbers

An overall 14% decrease is reported for Stage 1 Statutory Complaints across the services. Upon comparison to 2019/20 this equates to a 28% decrease for Specialist Safeguarding and a 6% decrease for LAC and Disability.

Nature of complaint

Case management remains the consistent theme for nature of complaints, allowing for 81% of Statutory Stage 1 Complaints.

Timescales

The services adherence to the timescales when responding to Statutory Stage 1 Complaints has increased 20% compared to the previous year, with 65% being responded to within published timescales.

Resolved

Various complaints have been resolved to complainant’s satisfaction via meetings facilitated with the Complaints Team and Heads of Service. This has been following a request for a Stage 2 Independent Investigation and has therefore reduced the cost to the public purse.

Findings

Only 4% of Stage 1 Statutory Complaints have been found to be wholly upheld.

Relationship

58% of Statutory Stage 1 Complaints were received from parents of service users. Only 13% were received from a young person directly or an Advocate on behalf of a young person. The remainder were from relatives, Foster Carers and Solicitors.

Overall

The Complaints Team processed a total of 107 complaints through the Statutory Complaints Procedure at Stage 1. The chart below provides a breakdown with a comparison for the previous reporting years:

2018/19 - 103

2019/20 - 118

2020/21 - 107

The data above reports a 14% decrease in Statutory Stage 1 Complaints. Whilst a decrease in complaints received is always welcome, it is not possible to forecast future complaint figures and any key themes can be better identified by considering the findings of these complaints.

Breakdown

The data above reports a 14% decrease in Statutory Stage 1 Complaints. Whilst a decrease in complaints received is always welcome, it is not possible to forecast future complaint figures and any key themes can be better identified by considering the findings of these complaints.

Outcomes of stage 1 statutory complaints*

*at the time of reporting 15% of complaints remained open/outstanding.

The figures above evidence a slight increase in complaints found to be upheld, however there is a decrease in those found to be partially upheld with an increase in complaints found to be not upheld.

Outcomes by operational leadership

Specialist safeguarding, early help and youth offending service

• Outstanding - 13%
• Upheld - 6%
• Withdrawn - 6%
• Partially upheld - 34%
• Not upheld - 43%

LAC and disability service

• Outstanding - 18%
• Upheld - 4%
• Withdrawn - 8%
• Partially upheld - 28%
• Not upheld - 40%

Partnership and development

• Withdrawn - 25%
• Not upheld - 75%