Ombudsman sees more complaints related to reduced local government resources

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGO) has revealed it is seeing more complaints related to reduced local government resources, “and this is sometimes cited as a reason for service failure”.

In its annual report and accounts for 2016/17, the LGO said it had upheld 53% of complaints where it had carried out an investigation.

The LGO also made nearly 4,000 recommendations during the year. Of these, more than 600 were to improve services for the public by recommending councils and care providers make policy and practice changes.

The Ombudsman added that:

• It had registered 19,077 new complaints and enquiries; and dealt with a further 12,848 queries.
• It received most complaints and enquiries about Education and Children’s Services (18%), followed by Adult Social Care (17%) and Planning and Development (13%).
• In terms of the number of complaints and enquiries registered, those about adult social care continued to rise, as they had for a number of years;
• Complaints about housing, and benefits and tax, had declined;
• It had met all of its time targets for completing investigations; maintaining customer satisfaction levels; and expanding the reach of its complaint handling training programme.
• It completed 79% of investigations within 13 weeks; 92% of investigations within 26 weeks; and 99% of investigations within 52 weeks.

Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman Michael King said: “We play a vital role in holding public services to account, and I have seen first-hand the huge difference we can make to people’s lives when we resolve serious failures.

“But it is not enough to fix people’s problems one by one. We must harness our unique insight into where things are going wrong to help councils and care providers improve services for everyone’s benefit.

“I am proud of the work we did last year, and the successes are down to the skills and dedication of every member of our staff.”

King added: “For us to alter our expectations in order to accommodate these challenges would be to let down the public and the bodies in jurisdiction themselves. We will continue to hold public bodies and care providers to account against the law, relevant guidance and their own policies; and share our findings to aid scrutiny of services.”

The annual report can be obtained here.