Over half of investigations against councils upheld

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman’s annual report has revealed that 57 per cent of the investigations into complaints against councils were upheld last year.

Where the Ombudsman upholds a complaint, it can recommend councils and care providers make changes to avoid the problems highlighted in a case affecting further people. Overall, the Ombudsman made 3,949 recommendations last year, which includes actions to put things right for the individuals that complained.

The organisation’s figures show a total of 31,664 complaints and enquiries from the public over the past year, with the Ombudsman making 730 recommendations to improve services for the wider public, almost a fifth more than the year before.

Michael King, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, said: “Our recommendations for service improvement are helping local authorities unlock the power of our investigations, to improve the lives of many people who haven’t directly complained to us. I welcome where councils and care providers have worked constructively with us to remedy injustices and take on board the learning from our cases.

“Last year we put considerable effort into changing our processes to give more sophisticated information about the impact of our recommendations. In future, I hope this will help councils increasingly to capitalise on the added value complaints can bring.”