Ombudsman Watchers Group Blog

The petition

The Government’s pathetic response. (No wonder the country is in such a mess!)

The death of Baby Peter in Haringey was a very tragic case that shocked and appalled the country. Safeguarding children is this Government’s top priority and we expect it to be the top priority for local agencies too. Ministers announced to Parliament on 12 November that they had asked Lord Laming to prepare an independent report of progress being made in the delivery of arrangements to protect children, and to identify any barriers to effective, consistent implementation and how these might be overcome. The Government welcomed Lord Laming’s report, published on 12 March, and responded immediately, accepting all his recommendations and taking swift, decisive action to begin to take them forward. On 6 May the Government published an action plan, confirming its commitment to implementing Lord Laming’s recommendations and its determination to do everything possible to make the arrangements in this country for protecting children the best in the world.

From April 2000 to March 2008 the Local Government Ombudsman investigated 115 complaints about social services as a whole in Haringey. During this time, the Local Government Ombudsman has received 53 complaints about children and family services in Haringey. Of the 53 complains received 12 were resolved through local settlement, 6 resulted in findings of no maladministration, 13 were resolved using Ombudsman’s discretion, 4 were considered to be outside the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction to investigate and 18 were considered to be premature. Complaints categorised as about children and family services can include child protection, care arrangements including fostering and adoption or arrangements for children leaving care.

The Government considers that the Local Government Ombudsman continues to provide a robust route of redress and that no review is required.