The Local Government Ombudsmen’s combined role in service improvement and remedying injustice for individuals provides a valuable contribution to local accountability, says their Annual Report 2009/10.

The Local Government Ombudsmen’s combined role in service improvement and remedying injustice for individuals provides a valuable contribution to local accountability, says their Annual Report 2009/10 – Delivering public value – published today (27 July 2010).

Enabling citizens to voice concerns

“As Ombudsmen, we have a unique role in enabling citizens, especially the most vulnerable, to voice their concerns and seek redress”, say the Ombudsmen (LGOs). “In a year of great economic upheaval and political change, we have been reminded of our important role in providing a free and independent service to citizens aggrieved about the way they have been treated by local authorities. We also know that local authorities constructively use the outcomes of our investigations.”

Numbers of complaints

In the year ended 31 March 2010, complaints and enquiries fell to 18,020, compared with 21,012 in 2008/09, but there was an increase complaints about adult social care (up to 6% of the total from 4%) and children and family services (up to 5% from 4%). Complaints about school admissions fell slightly after increases in the last two years. Housing and planning continue to be the biggest areas of complaint. The LGOs made 10,309 decisions in the year, and 28% (of those within jurisdiction) led to redress for the complainants.

New service areas

Also in the year, plans were put in place to expand the LGOs’ work into two new areas relating to maintained schools and the provision of adult social care in the private and not-for-profit sectors.

Other developments

Other developments over the year include:

• the appointment of a new Ombudsman – Dr Jane Martin took office in January 2010, after the retirement of Jerry White in September 2009;
• further developments of our website, including a new email alert to let users know about changes and additions to the site in their areas of interest, and a new database that includes investigation reports published in the last five years;
• delivering 118 training courses in complaint handling for local authority staff; and
• issuing two reports jointly with the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, including one, Environmentally Unfriendly, that illustrated what can happen when authorities do not work together to solve serious problems – in this case, the illegal dumping and burning of rubbish in a green belt beauty spot.

The report is published shortly after the LGOs’ annual reviews on every local authority in England. The reviews provide a summary of information on the complaints that the LGO received about each council and, where possible, draw any lessons learned on an authority’s performance and complaint-handling arrangements. All reviews are on the LGO website at www.lgo.org.uk/CouncilsPerformance/

27 July 2010

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Article date: 27 July 2010