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Case ref:201103503
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Date:September 2013
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Body:Fife Council
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Sector:Local Government
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Outcome:Some upheld, recommendations
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Subject:complaints handling (incl social work complaints procedures)
Summary
Mr C raised a number of concerns about the council's social work services child protection procedures. Mr C was unhappy about the action taken by social work services leading up to a child protection case conference, and about the accuracy of a social work report prepared for the case conference. Mr C also raised concerns about the way the council handled his complaint about this.
Our investigation found no evidence that the council had failed to follow child protection procedures in handling this case, and we did not uphold Mr C's complaints about this. We did find that they had failed to include all relevant information on their client system, and that some information had not been recorded accurately. However, the council had taken action to address this, so we did not make any recommendations about this. We also found that the council had failed to handle Mr C's representations in line with their complaints procedure.
Recommendations
We recommended that the council:
- apologise for their handling of Mr C's initial complaint; and
- ensure that statements are obtained from all participants when handling a complaint relating to an interview that involves a number of departments and/or agencies.