LGO raps council after woman waits two years for complaint to be investigated

The Local Government Ombudsman has urged a council to conduct a “root and branch” review of its statutory complaints process, after the authority took two years to respond to a woman’s complaint about its children's services department.

The complainant, Mrs X, contacted the LGO after her complaints to Derbyshire County Council went unanswered in May 2011.

The local authority subsequently told the Ombudsman that it would investigate. However, by September 2012 Derbyshire had still not carried out a stage two investigation under the statutory children’s complaints procedures.

Mrs X got back in touch with the LGO and the council committed to undertake the investigation.

However, by April 2013 the complainant still had not heard from the council or the investigating officer.

Two days after the LGO wrote to Derbyshire again on 25 April, the council sent Mrs X an acknowledgement of her complaint.

It emerged that the county council had failed to appoint an independent person to investigate the complaint under the statutory procedures as it promised on two previous occasions, and had not arranged a meeting with Mrs X to discuss her issues before starting an investigation.

Finding maladministration causing injustice, the LGO said the council should:

• investigate Mrs X’s complaints through stage 2 of the statutory complaints procedures;
• meet with her to agree her statement of complaint;
• complete its investigation in accordance with the expected timescales set out in the regulations and the statutory complaints procedures;
• pay Mrs X £500 in recognition of the time and trouble taken in pursuing her complaint; and
• undertake a detailed review of its statutory complaints procedures and provide the LGO with evidence of the review and any outcomes within three months of the date of the Ombudsman’s report.

Dr Jane Martin, the LGO, said: “This is a clear-cut example of a council failing to deal with complaints effectively, which could have saved years of undue anxiety for the complainant.

“Despite regular chasing by my office and the complainant, the council failed to act appropriately and carry out a stage two investigation – something which it has a statutory duty to perform. It has also failed to comply with two previous recommendations to do so, despite agreeing to this formally.

“We expect councils to learn from the investigations we carry out into them and take seriously our recommendations. I am disappointed that this has not happened here and hope to see an improved complaints service from Derbyshire County Council in future.”