Council payout for 15-month child protection delay

A council has been ordered to pay compensation to a parent after it was 15 months late in dealing with his child protection complaint.

The Local Government Ombudsman said it had raised "significant concerns" in the past about Cumbria County Council - now replaced by Cumberland Council - for its delay in considering complaints.

In this case, a man complained about how a social worker dealt with arranging contact with his children and that the council had not taken reasonable action when he raised safeguarding concerns.

Cumberland Council said it had apologised to the man and had been working to ensure "timely resolution" of complaints.

The Ombudsman's report shows the council were involved with the man, referred to as Mr X, and his children between 2019 and 2023 due to child protection concerns.

In August 2021, Mr X made his initial complaint where he said the social worker held negative views about him which impacted upon the support his children were receiving.

He added she had issued a contact arrangement plan without considering the family’s needs, among other issues.

Councils have a three-stage complaints process they must adhere to with specific timeframes given to deal with them.

In the first stage of the complaint, which is dealt with internally, the council said the social worker had not prioritised either parent, however she should have carried out further home visits to involve parents in the process.

Mr X was unhappy with the response and escalated his complaint to the second stage - where two independent people are appointed to look into the issues - and the third and final level which involves an independent review panel.

Both stages upheld all or part of Mr X's complaint, except one that the social worker was biased against him.

Because of significant delays in arranging these reviews, Mr X received the final adjudication letter in July 2023 - almost two years after his initial complaint.

According to guidelines, councils have up to 20 working days to deal with a complaint at its initial stage, 65 for the second and 30 working days for the third, with a decision issued within 20 days from the panel's hearing.

The Ombudsman said: "The distress Mr X experienced because of maladministration by the council is clear."

They added that because "most of his complaints were upheld or partially upheld" the council needed to offer two separate payments; one of £375 to recognise the delay and one of £350 to recognise the distress caused.

They also ordered the council to issue an apology.

The Ombudsman added they had previously ordered the council to improve on how it deals with complaints, due to "significant concerns" about delays.

As this work was "still taking effect", the Ombudsman said they would not be issuing further orders to improve.

Cumberland Council was formed in 2023 and this complaint was submitted against its predecessor - Cumbria County Council.

A Cumberland Council spokesperson said it has been working on its complaints handling.

They added: "While we cannot provide detailed comments on individual cases, we have taken the opportunity to apologise directly to the complainant for the length of time this case took to resolve."

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