Summary: The Council’s contractors have often failed to provide Mrs Y’s assisted bin collection. This has been continuing for years, and despite the Council overseeing the service, the problems persist. This has caused injustice to Mrs Y who is chronically ill and physically impaired. The Council will oversee Mrs Y’s collections for a further three months and acknowledge Mrs Y’s distress, time and trouble with an apology and payment of £250.

The complaint

1. Mrs Y complains the Council regularly fails to provide her assisted bin collection because contractors either fail to collect her bin or fail to return her bin to the designated location once emptied. Mrs Y is unable to move the bins herself due to her disability and ill health. If the bins are not returned to the correct location, they hinder access to Mrs Y’s property, and she has on occasion missed important medical appointments as a result.
2. Mrs Y also complains the Council has failed in its Equality Act duty to make reasonable adjustments in the way it communicates with her.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
4. We may investigate matters coming to our attention during an investigation, if we consider that a member of the public who has not complained may have suffered an injustice as a result. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26D and 34E, as amended)
5. If we are satisfied with a council’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

6. During my investigation I considered the information provided by Mrs Y when she made her telephone complaint. I also discussed the complaint with Mrs Y by telephone.
7. I made enquiries of the Council and considered its response.
8. I put my provisional findings in a draft decision statement and invited comments from Mrs Y and the Council. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.

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What I found

What should happen

Assisted collections

9. The Council operates an ‘assisted collection’ service for residents who are elderly or physically impaired and have nobody within their household to help with the movement of their bins. As part of an assisted collection refuse workers collect bins from an agreed collection point at the property. The Council has confirmed that its contractors are expected to return the empty bins to the agreed point.

Equality Act duties

10. The Equality Act 2010 (‘the Act’) protects the rights of individuals and supports equality of opportunity for all. It offers protection in employment, education, the provision of goods and services, housing, transport and the carrying out of public functions.
11. The Act makes it unlawful for organisations carrying out public functions to discriminate on any of the nine protected characteristics listed in the Act. They must also have regard to the general duties aimed at eliminating discrimination under the Public Sector Equality Duty.
12. The reasonable adjustment duty is set out in the Act and applies to any body which carries out a public function. It aims to make sure that a disabled person can use a service as close as it is reasonably possible to get to the standard usually offered to non-disabled people.
13. Service providers are under a positive and proactive duty to take steps to remove or prevent obstacles to accessing their service. If the adjustments are reasonable, they must make them.
14. The duty is ‘anticipatory’. This means service providers cannot wait until a disabled person wants to use their services but must think in advance about what disabled people with a range of impairments might reasonably need.

What happened

15. Mrs Y is chronically ill and physically impaired. She cannot move her bins to the boundary of her property. The Council therefore provides Mrs Y with an assisted collection of her bins.
16. Mrs Y complains that for several years crew members have regularly failed to return her bins to the agreed collection point. Mrs Y has explained that she often must attend medical appointments and if her bin is left blocking her gate, or the pathway, she cannot exit her property and on occasion she has missed her appointments.
17. The Council uses a contractor called ‘Urbaser’ to complete waste collections on its behalf. The Council has accepted that Urbaser has sometimes failed to provide the full assisted collection service. The Council’s records show that Mrs Y has reported problems with her assisted collection on approximately 15 occasions since 2019.
18. If the Council receives three or more reports from a service user within a three-month period, it will mark the property as a ‘hotspot’ and undertake a period of monitoring.
19. The Council has explained that refuse crews are fully aware of the problems. Mrs Y’s address is a recognised ‘hotspot’, and the Council will continue to monitor Mrs Y’s collections as a ‘hotspot’ in future. So far, the Council has taken the following action:
• On each report made by Mrs Y, the Council has asked Urbaser to investigate the matter. Urbaser has undertaken site visits with a supervisor to check that Mrs Y’s bins are returned to the correct location.
• Ensured that memos about Mrs Y’s collections are displayed within crew vehicles.
• Urbaser have reminded its crews about Mrs Y’s assisted collections and have tried contacting Mrs Y to discuss her concerns directly.
20. We asked the Council to clarify what wider procedures it has in place to monitor its contract with Urbaser to ensure the terms of the contract are properly fulfilled. The Council has explained it does this via regular meetings, contract inspections and a performance management regime. Each Urbaser vehicle is also fitted with ‘in-cab’ technology to identify properties which should receive assisted collections.
21. Despite monitoring Mrs Y’s property as a hotspot, she has continued to experience problems. The Council asked Mrs Y to email photographs on each occasion she experiences a problem with an assisted collection. The Council says it will consider the matter closed if Mrs Y does not make a written report with photographic evidence. Mrs Y has explained that she is disabled, and she cannot take photographs and email the Council as requested.
22. Dissatisfied with the Council’s handling of her complaint, Mrs Y approached the LGSCO for an impartial review.

Is there fault causing injustice to Mrs Y?

23. The Council has already acknowledged the assisted collection service provided to Mrs Y is not always at the required level. The Council says this is, in part, due to staff turnover and recruitment challenges at Urbaser. The Council has also accepted fault in the following areas:
• That it was inappropriate to ask Mrs Y to email photographs each time she has a problem.
• The way the Council records missed collections is not adequate and needs improvement.
24. The Council has also highlighted that, on occasion, Mrs Y has not left her bin at the agreed collection point. Urbaser say sometimes its workers cannot empty the bin as it is behind Mrs Y’s locked gate. Mrs Y says this happened when she went into hospital unexpectedly. From the photographs seen, it does appear that Mrs Y’s bin is sometimes found in varying locations and so for the avoidance of any doubt the collection point should be clarified and confirmed between all parties.
25. The Ombudsman cannot find that a body in jurisdiction has breached the Equality Act. However, we can find a body at fault for failing to take account of their duties under the Equality Act. We consider the Council failed to take account of Mrs Y’s needs when it initially insisted that she make her complaint in writing. The Council also failed to consider Mrs Y’s needs when it asked for the submission of photographs to evidence the problems she raised with the assisted collections. In my view, this caused avoidable distress to Mrs Y which the Council will remedy.
26. Assisted collections are provided to some of the most vulnerable residents. The LGSCO is therefore concerned that general failures in the assisted collection procedure may cause significant injustice. We can consider whether a wider group of people have been affected, or potentially affected, by the faults we have found. Using our powers under 26(D) of the Local Government Act, we can recommend remedies for injustice to other people who have not complained.
27. We asked the Council to provide details of all complaints received within the past 12 months in relation to assisted collections. The Council confirmed it has not received any complaints other than Mrs Y’s. I am therefore satisfied there is no outstanding injustice to the wider public, however the procedural improvements I have recommended will hopefully ensure that Mrs Y and others do not experience problems in the future.

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Agreed action

28. When a council commissions another organisation to provide services on its behalf it remains responsible for those services and for the actions of the organisation providing them. So, although I found fault with the service of Urbaser, I have made recommendations to the Council.
29. To acknowledge the injustice experienced by Mrs Y and to prevent future problems the Council has agreed to:
1. Apologise to Mrs Y for the repeated failures with her assisted collections and pay £250 to acknowledge her distress, time and trouble.
2. Write to Mrs Y confirming the agreed collection point for her bin.
3. Consider whether Urbaser needs to provide further training to its staff about assisted collections.
4. Provide evidence to the LGSCO of the steps the Council has taken to improve its record keeping in relation to missed collections.
5. Monitor the assisted bin collection service for three months from the Ombudsman’s final decision, identify the reasons for any problems, and consider how the issues can be resolved on a long-term basis. Continue to complete spot checks on this route thereafter.
30. The Council will undertake a) and b) within four weeks of our final decision, and c), d) and e) within twelve weeks of our final decision.

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Final decision

31. I have completed my investigation with a finding of fault causing injustice for the reasons explained in this statement. The above remedial actions are a proportionate remedy for the injustice caused.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman