Last updated: March 2025

Introduction

For over 50 years we have worked with local authorities to ensure that complaints from the public are dealt with in the right way, at the right time, and in the right place. Although the matters we deal with are seldom easy, maintaining a professional relationship between a council’s or authority’s staff and the Ombudsman’s office is crucial to ensuring that this process works properly for both sides and for local people. 

However, we are increasingly conscious of the huge pressures that council and authority officers and service managers are working under. This guide aims to explain how we work and our expectations of organisations when responding to our enquiries and decisions.

We recognise that, given the nature of our work, we won’t always agree with one another.  And, in order to maintain our independence, there will always be a degree of distance and formality between us: the public would expect nothing less. However, maintaining a strong professional relationship between the Ombudsman and organisations we investigate is key to resolving complaints quickly and improving public services through learning from complaints.