Children’s services top complaint against councils

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has launched its annual review of local government complaints for 2018-19, a third of which were about children services and adult social care.

The report shows the Ombudsman registered 16,899 complaints and enquiries last year, with the Ombudsman making 3,525 recommendations for how councils can put things right for the individual, 99.4 per cent of which were accepted by local authorities, as well as 1,450 recommendations for service improvements.

The data shows that London has the highest uphold rate, with 63 per cent of all detailed investigations being upheld, whilst the North East region has the lowest uphold rate at 46 per cent.

The Ombudsman is also launching its new interactive map which gives people the chance to see how their local authority is performing at the click of a button.

Michael King, Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, said: “All too often conversations about complaints focus on the raw numbers. We believe there is a much more productive discussion to be had about the outcomes of those complaints, the real-world improvements made and the lessons that can be shared.

“For the first time, we’re publishing all the ‘service improvements’ we’ve recommended; and the rate at which councils have taken them on board. And to help share these lessons more widely and encourage scrutiny, we’ve launched an online map, putting each council’s data just one click away. The new map is a mine of searchable information that can be used by council officers to learn from complaints, councillors to scrutinise complaints and decisions about their authorities, and residents to hold their local authorities to account.”