As it increasingly focuses on making wide-ranging recommendations to better council services, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has directed more improvements to local councils in the North West in the past year than ever before.
Launched today, the Ombudsman's annual review of complaints gives a concise overview of the state of local government complaints over the past year.
The Ombudsman upheld 69% of complaints in the region, which has increased from 65% last year. This year's data also show:
11% of all complaints from this region
Most complaints are about Children and Education - 24%, up from 23% last year
Fewest complaints are about Housing at 4%, down from 5% last year
Highest uphold rate is for complaints about Adult Social Care and Children and Education (78%). Last year this was for Corporate and Other Services (78% last year)
Lowest uphold rate is for Planning (42%, up from 30% last year)
This region has the joint highest proportion of its complaints about Benefits and Taxation (10%, England-wide average of 8%), and Environmental Services (14% compared with 12% England-wide)
This region has the lowest proportion of its complaints about Housing (4% compared with England-wide average of 13%)
This region has the highest uphold rate nationwide for its complaints about Highways and Transportation (71%, compared with national average of 55%)
And although the Ombudsman's role is to remedy individual people's problems, it is increasingly looking at how it can make sweeping recommendations on the back of those complaints to help councils learn and improve services for everyone.
In 2021-22, the Ombudsman made 1,848 service improvement recommendations nationally, with all but a vanishingly small number of councils complying (99.7%).
In one case, a council insisted a family pay a top-up fee for a relative's care home place, despite not offering one where they did not need to pay extra. Following the Ombudsman's investigation, the council reviewed its processes and reimbursed a further 29 families.
In another case, the Ombudsman found a council was not paying friends and family foster carers the correct allowance. It asked the council to look at whether other foster carers were being similarly underpaid. Six other families received their missed support, and the council put in place changes to ensure this would not happen again.
Link: Salford City Council - Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman
There were 10 upheld decisions in Salford based on 21 detailed, which means that 48% were upheld by the ombudsmen which is below the national average of 68%.
We are happy to report that the council was in 100% compliance with the ombudsmen's recommendations.
30% of cases were resolved before the complaint reached the ombudsmen which is also above the national average of 11% in similar authorities.
The decisions on the 10 complaints which were upheld are as detailed below.
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Salford City Council (21 002 727)
Statement Upheld COVID-19 24-Feb-2022
Summary: Ms X complained the Fountains Nursing Home failed to provide adequate care to her father in the hours prior to his death and that the Council's safeguarding investigation was flawed. The Council has already identified fault, mainly around communication with the family and the Nursing Home's recording of events. It has apologised to Ms X and made service improvements. These are suitable actions to remedy Ms X's injustice and prevent a reoccurrence.
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Salford City Council (21 006 773)
Statement Upheld Residential care 19-Oct-2021
Summary: We will not investigate Mr B's complaint about the Councils failure to communicate effectively with him. This is because we are satisfied the Council has implemented additional processes to ensure concerns are dealt with more effectively in the future. There is no unremedied injustice warranting an Ombudsman investigation.
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Salford City Council (20 006 611)
Statement Upheld Special educational needs 03-Sep-2021
Summary: Mrs F complained the Council has not provided her son with the specialist provision required in his Education, Health and Care plan after a Tribunal order. We find the Council was at fault for not holding an annual review within 12 months. However, this did not cause Mrs F or her son an injustice.
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Salford City Council (20 012 320)
Statement Upheld Parking and other penalties 29-Jul-2021
Summary: Mrs F complained about the actions of the Council's Enforcement Agent. She said it did not follow the required procedures and its Officer failed to wear personal protective equipment. As a result, Mrs F said she experienced financial loss and distress. We find there was no fault in the enforcement process. However, on balance, the Enforcement Officer failed to wear the required personal protective equipment during COVID-19. The Council has agreed apologise to Mrs F to remedy the distress this caused.
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Salford City Council (20 011 196)
Statement Upheld Council tax 09-Jul-2021
Summary: Mr T says the Council took a direct debit payment from him for council tax when he had nothing left to pay, leaving him unable to buy essential goods. The Council accepts fault for its actions and has already offered a suitable remedy.
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Salford City Council (20 008 975)
Statement Upheld Special educational needs 25-Jun-2021
Summary: There was delay by the Council in issuing a decision following an annual review meeting. This meant that a reassessment and replacement of an Education, Health and Care plan took four months longer than it should have. This in turn delayed the School being able to implement all the up to date recommendations and interventions and caused injustice to the child. Recommendations for a financial payment and service improvements are made.
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Salford City Council (20 011 259)
Statement Upheld Council tax 24-Jun-2021
Summary: Mr C complained the Council twice pursued him for an outstanding council tax debt owed by someone with the same name, even though it said it had removed him from the case after the first occasion. The Council also failed to address Mr C's complaint and request for a review. The Council has agreed to review its staff guidance, apologise and pay £250 to Mr C for distress caused by the poor service he received.
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Salford City Council (20 007 918)
Statement Upheld Assessment and care plan 09-Jun-2021
Summary: Ms C complained about the way the Council responded to her request for help and advice, when her main carer (her mother) potentially had Covid. We found fault with regards to the way the Council responded to this, which caused Ms C distress. The Council has accepted this and agreed to provide an apology to Ms C, pay her a financial remedy for distress, and share the lessons learned with staff.
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Salford City Council (19 020 105)
Statement Upheld Special educational needs 04-Jun-2021
Summary: Mrs X complains that the Council failed to provide the special educational provision for her daughter, as set out in her Education, Health and Care plan, for two years. Mrs X says this has impacted on her and her daughter's health. She says she had to give up work and has been trying to educate her child herself. The Ombudsman finds the Council at fault for failing to provide supplementary educational provision for two months. This caused injustice. The Council will apologise to Mrs X and her daughter, and make a payment to reflect the impact of missed education.
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Salford City Council (20 005 197)
Statement Upheld Child protection 27-Apr-2021
Summary: Mr X complains about the way the Council dealt with a safeguarding referral and child protection enquiry, and its handling of his complaint about this. The Ombudsman has found fault by the Council in its complaint handling, and in raising an issue about the children's care in their presence, causing injustice. The Council has agreed to remedy this by making payments to reflect time and trouble and distress caused by these faults and providing evidence of service improvements.
Michael King, Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, said:
Quote
"One complaint can have immense power to change things for the better, and we're increasingly focusing on to how we, and the local authorities we investigate, take the learning from those complaints and improve service provision.
"The vast majority of councils agree to the recommendations we make and see them as common-sense ways of providing better services for people in their area. However this can only happen when councils act swiftly when they have committed to do so.
"Unfortunately we are seeing some councils taking longer to make those changes, which put them at risk of making the same mistakes again. In 18% of cases we found compliance was late.
"While I welcome the professional way in which the majority of councils continue to work with us, I would urge those authorities who are having problems to pay close attention to this final, but crucial, step in the complaints process."
The Ombudsman's report is published with detailed data for every English authority on how they perform against similar organisations. It also includes resources for councillors and senior council officers to raise the profile of complaints within their organisation.
People can search for their local council's data using the Ombudsman's interactive online map, where they can find details of upheld complaints, service recommendations and their authority's annual letter, detailing how the council has responded to the Ombudsman's investigations.
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