The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has analysed national complaints data and found issues around financial assistance and information provision for special guardians. Special guardianship orders, often involving family members stepping in to look after children who cannot live with their birth parents, have become far more common over the past decade.
The ombudsman has investigated several complaints where councils have not backed up verbal advice with written information about the consequences of becoming a special guardian, and there were also examples where councils had given the wrong advice.
