Local Government Ombudsman upholds less than one-fifth of Yorkshire complaints

The Local Government Ombudsman, an independent body that looks into individual complaints about councils, has issued its annual figures relating to authorities in the region.

During 2019/20, people made 1,231 about all councils across Yorkshire and 192 cases were upheld (15.5 per cent).

However, of the complaints the Ombudsman actually investigated in the region - it will not investigate every complaint because, for example, it does not have the jurisdiction to do so, they may simply be general enquiries or the complainant has not exhausted all other options so investigating is deemed premature - the uphold rate was 61 per cent.

Leeds City Council, the region's largest council area and the third biggest city in the country, had the most complaints at 185 - the majority of which, 33, related to education and children.

However, just 31 of those initial complaints were upheld.

Sheffield was second highest, with 143 - but had the highest regional number of upheld complaints at 34 (23 per cent).

A spokesman for Leeds City Council said: “As a council we take any complaints extremely seriously, and residents can be assured that they will be thoroughly investigated and a detailed response provided.

“If a complainant is not happy with our response it can be referred to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.

"Every support will always be provided by the council to assist the Ombudsman’s own investigations into a particular case.

"If a complaint is upheld we will always fully review the findings and take any appropriate action as required. This forms part of our on-going work to ensure that we continually review and improve services and support to ensure that they are fit for purpose and robust.”

In 2018/19, there were 1,253 complaints in Yorkshire and the Humber, with only 170 leading to an upheld decision.

The highest uphold rate was for the area of children and education (73 per cent), and the lowest was for housing (36 per cent).

Leeds, Bradford and Sheffield councils have been approached for comment.

Issued every year, the review summarises the complaints the Ombudsman has received, and identifies the trends the organisation is seeing across England.

At the same time, the Ombudsman writes to councils giving them a round-up of the complaints the organisation has received about them. These letters form part of the information published about each council on the Ombudsman’s interactive performance map.

Across the country, the Ombudsman is seeing increasing problems in people’s complaints, which has led to it making more wider service improvement recommendations to councils in 2019/20 than ever before.

The review shows the Ombudsman has made more than 1,600 recommendations to improve services for the wider public in the past year – up 12 per cent on the previous year.

Service improvement recommendations are when councils agree to review policies, procedures and staff training, to avoid other people being affected by the same fault in a case.

Over the same period the Ombudsman has upheld a greater proportion of the complaints it investigates, from 58 per cent last year to 61 per cent.

But this figure includes a higher number of cases where the Ombudsman agreed with the way the council had offered to put things right before the complaint got to the Ombudsman.

This figure has increased from 11 per cent to 13 percent – demonstrating the sector is increasingly learning from its own complaints, said the body.

The Ombudsman publishes information on the extent to which councils comply with its recommendations. Last year 99.4 per cent of recommendations were agreed and carried out by councils.

The data, which includes specific information about complaints investigated for every local authority in England, is included on the Ombudsman’s interactive online map.

Michael King, Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, said: “While we are seeing more and more complex cases beset by systemic problems, we are also increasingly working with councils to identify the root of those problems and making recommendations to improve the underlying policies and procedures causing them.

“These service improvements highlight the power one single complaint can have – when dealt with properly – to prevent problems reoccurring and improve services for others.

“The cases highlighted in my report reflect the reality of local authority life prior to the Covid-19 crisis, but I believe it is all the more important now to deal with complaints properly and to harness this free public feedback.

“Councils’ readiness on the whole to work with us to implement our practical recommendations to improve the services they provide demonstrates the sector has a mature attitude to complaint handling - one which we have advocated throughout our work”

Across England, there were 2,039 cases in which the Ombudsman made recommendations to put things right (up six per cent on 2018/19) and 3,748 recommendations to remedy personal injustice (also up six per cent).

In many cases, the body recommend more than one type of remedy. For example, it may recommend an authority makes an apology, pays a sum of money, and reviews a policy or procedure.

The Ombudsman issues a separate annual review for the Adult Social Care cases it investigates, covering both local councils and independent care providers. This report is published in the Autumn.