Staffordshire council to think again about care leaver’s complaint

[Alison J Stevens]

https://www.lgo.org.uk/information-centre/news/2022/mar/staffordshi...

https://www.familylawweek.co.uk/site.aspx?i=ed229012

This kind of thing happens on a regular basis.

Somebody I advocated went through something very similar to this case.

The 15 year old became pregnant while in Local Authority Care, she had been moved 200 miles away from her birth parents.

Miles away from her school and friends she once knew.

She was placed with an elderly couple who were very strict, she became friends with a man who was 15 years older than her, who was supporting her emotionally because the foster carers denied her a phone call to her friends.

She gave birth to the baby, while in the care of the elderly couple.

Unsure what happened after that.

But in this case, the Local Authority could of supported during the time she was pregnant and she could of been supported by the LA in her own right as a looked after child.

She was pregnant at the age of 15, she made the complaint to the LA in 2020.

The Ombudsman's investigation found the council followed the statutory guidance too rigidly and failed to take into account the advice to consider people's complaints on a case-by-case basis.

In this case the council had records it could and did refer to when answering some of the young woman's questions about her time in care and should have done more to consider whether it could investigate her complaint.