More than one in five remedies recommended by Ombudsman being implemented “later than agreed” by councils
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has revealed that nearly 60% of all authorities against whom a remedy was recommended following investigation have a “late compliance” registered against them.
The Ombudsman warned that people who have been treated poorly by their local council are “all too often having their situations made worse when their council delays putting things right”.
In its annual review of local government complaints, the Ombudsman also revealed the highest area of complaint across its casework remains complaints about poor services for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).
These complaints now account for 26% of all complaints, and 42% of all upheld complaints.
The Ombudsman found fault in 92% of the education cases it investigated, and the report observed that these numbers are “increasing rapidly”.
Another key area was adult social care services, which made up 14% of the Ombudsman’s casework. In this area, 80% of investigated complaints were upheld.
Complaints about housing and homelessness made up a further 16% of casework, with 84% of investigations upheld – “a situation particularly acute in London”, according to the LGSCO.
The Ombudsman said that, overall, it is now upholding 80% of the investigations it carries out, up from 74% in 2022-23.
Amerdeep Somal, Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, said: “What we’re seeing in the majority of cases isn’t a lack of care or an inability to take responsibility for what has gone wrong, but a sector struggling to cope.
“Councils want to comply with our recommendations, accept responsibility when things go wrong, and provide good services to residents, and our 99.5% compliance rate indicates this is the case. But all too often resources and finances prevent them from doing so as swiftly as they should.
“However, there are a small number of councils that seem unwilling to respond to our investigations as we expect them to, and we have had to tell those councils that we will issue a witness summons for them to provide information that should otherwise be forthcoming.
"[…] I urge those few councils that do not talk to us and engage in the process to get on board to benefit their local residents. The service improvement recommendations we make are practical steps that should be in the gift of local authorities to put in place. If councils are unable to implement them in the timescales we require, they should let us know before they agree to them.”
Lottie Winson
