Complaints about Welsh councils fall but housing associations and health boards see sharp rises - Ombudsman

Complaints about housing associations and health boards increased sharply in Wales last year while those concerning councils fell.

The annual report of the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales, Michelle Morris, showed a 2% increase in complaints of all kind to 2,790 against 2,726 the previous year.

She said the year had been “very challenging” in particular because of highly complex complaints made about NHS bodies.

New complaints against councils fell by 11% to 1,020 but those against NHS bodies were up by 15% to 1,288 and housing associations saw a 1% increase to 348.

There were also 30 complaints about community councils, one fewer than last year.

Complaints about matters covered by the councillors’ code of conduct totalled 442 of which enough information existed to look into 283, which was 4% less than last year. But the report noted: “We are concerned that more of our complaints relate to promotion of equality and respect”.

In all, 56% of new code of conduct complaints related to town and community councils, the Welsh equivalent of England’s parishes.

Ms Morris said overall the service found something wrong and intervened in 19% of cases but in 75% of these proposed and agreed actions to resolve the complaint at an early stage. Overall, there were 1,259 recommendations made to public service providers, who complied with 90% of them.

One special report was issued, about Bannau Brycheiniog National Park Authority, because it had failed to comply with recommendations first agreed and issued in 2019.
Morris said: “We are glad that, with record complaints closures, we were able to help many more people this year.

“We welcome the drop in the number of new complaints about the code of conduct, and in the number of potentially serious breaches of the code that we had to refer on.”

She said though the year had been “very challenging” with health complaints leading to investigations that were often lengthy and complex, imposing a growing workload that had affected the well-being of staff.

The report said the service had welcomed the new Duty of Candour - a legal requirement for NHS organisations in Wales to be open and transparent with service users harmed receiving health care.

But it had warned that the duty would be unsuccessful without the right culture in place and could lead to more complaints; it remained “concerned about the broader impact of this duty”.

The council most complained against in absolute terms was Cardiff, but the highest proportion of complaints to population was at Ceredigion. The fewest complaints concerned Blaenau Gwent and Torfaen.

The report said there were normally a small number of complaints about most housing associations, but this year 62 related to Hafod Housing Association alone, more than double the number received last year, a situation it said may have been influenced by its work with the association to better record complaints.

Mark Smulian