Education and Children’s Services most complained about sector of Leeds City Council
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman received more than 200 complaints about Leeds City Council this year - the second highest out of all UK city councils.
Leeds City Council has received some of the highest number of complaints out of all Metropolitan Councils in the UK.
The majority of complaints lodged against the council were regarding Education and Children’s Services.
New figures obtained by Legal Expert via Freedom of Information Requests has revealed that more than 3,500 official complaints have been lodged against Metropolitan Councils in the last year alone.
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, which reviews complaints, has also revealed the sectors that city residents are most disgruntled with.
This year (2023/24), the Ombudsman has dealt with a total of 3,641 complaints relating to Metropolitan Councils. These do not include complaints settled by councils on their own.
Out of 36 city councils, Leeds received the second highest number of complaints, second only to Birmingham City Council.
The Ombudsman is the final stage for complaints about complaints, if residents are not happy with the outcome of the initial process.
Leeds City Council was subject to 211 complaints to the Ombudsman in the last year.
The most common complaint related to Education and Children’s Services, which could include children’s social services or school’s actions, such as bullying, policy changes, or failure to support children with special educational needs.
A total of 70 such complaints were assessed by the Ombudsman, accounting for 33% of all complaints lodged against the council in 2023/24.
The second most common issue plaguing Leeds City residents was housing which had 37 complaints.
Other common reasons were: Adult and Social Care (28), Environmental Services (28), Planning and Development (17) and Highways and Transport (11).
Of these complaints, 42 were upheld and another 37 ‘referred back for local resolution’, while ‘advice’ was given in 19 other cases.
Some 67 were ‘closed after initial enquiries,’ meaning there was no case for the council to answer, while another 9 were not upheld.
Elsewhere in West Yorkshire, 132 complaints were made about Bradford City Council. The most common issue being Education and Children’s Services.
Some 96 complaints were also lodged against Kirklees Council, with Adult Social Care being the primary concern.
A further 86 were made for Calderdale Council as well as 61 for Wakefield. Education and Children’s Service was the most complained about sector for both.
LegalExpert.co.uk has a team of experts at hand to offer advice and support in relation to injuries resulting from council-caused incidents.
They operate a 24-hour helpline and live chat service which you can access on their website.