Guidance on investigations

This section of the website consists of internal guidance for LGO staff. We are making it available here for the information of website users. Some documents referred to are not available on this website.

From 1 April 2013 we have changed the process we use to consider complaints. This is now a three-stage process, and we have a separate manual for each stage.

The stages are:

• Intake -  this provides the gateway to accessing the services of the Local Government Ombudsman. The objective is to provide an accessible and knowledgeable front-line service to members of the public. The team handle all new enquiries and all re-submitted complaints, through a single phone number, a single web complaint form, and a single contact address. Their role is to identify premature complaints, to filter-out all misdirected and incomplete contacts and to send viable complaints through to the Assessment Team.
• Assessment -  the purpose of this stage is to:
  • make prompt and consistent decisions on all complaints that are either out of the Ombudsman's jurisdiction, that can be quickly resolved, or that do not merit formal investigation. This will be done by assessing each complaint against the criteria contained in the Assessment Code
  • as soon as is practically possible, identify and pass to investigation teams all substantive complaints that merit further formal investigation.
• Investigation - the objective here is to thoroughly and objectively consider every case referred from Assessment; make robust, timely decisions which can be published, and identify learning from cases of value to the wider public.

Date Updated: 27/03/13