A rights-based Ombudsman 

Ombudsman schemes are recognised internationally as playing an important role in protecting the rights of individuals, as well strengthening democracy, the rule of law, and standards of good administration. 

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman makes independent, objective and impartial decisions on whether organisations have considered their legal duties when they design services, when they make day to day decisions, and when they respond to people’s complaints. When we find these duties were neglected, we will assess the impact and recommend how to remedy the situation for individuals as well as others affected. When we find systemic policy or procedural problems caused the fault, we also make recommendations to improve the service for everybody who uses it. In virtually all cases, our recommendations are complied with, without us needing to take further action. 

We also use the human stories from our casework to drive improvements to the way organisations are run. This helps prevent similar mistakes from happening again. If we are concerned about an issue being widespread, we will share our findings with the wider regulatory sector – such as the Care Quality Commission, Ofsted, or the Equality and Human Rights Commission – so that individual complaints can help change systems for everyone. 

When we look at complaints, we compare the actions of organisations to what the law says, and our standards of good administrative practice. We may refer to the Human Rights Act 1998 if we decide an organisation has neglected people’s basic rights and freedoms. We may refer to the Equality Act 2010 where the person at the heart of the complaint has ‘protected characteristics’, such as a disability. Lastly, we will also take account of protections for specific groups in society – for example, the Armed Forces Covenant which protects armed forces personnel from being unfairly disadvantaged when they access local services.  

Human Rights Act 

The Human Rights Act 1998 sets out the fundamental rights and freedoms that everyone in the UK is entitled to. It incorporates the rights set out in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) into domestic British law. The Human Rights Act came into force in the UK in October 2000. It requires all local service providers (such as local councils, and organisations providing services on their behalf) to respect and protect human rights.

The Act sets out human rights in a series of ‘Articles’, each dealing with a different right. The Articles are taken from the ECHR and are commonly known as ‘the Convention Rights’. 

The issues that we see in the complaints made to us most often relate to:

• the right to private and family life (Article 8)
• the right to an education (Article 2 of the First Protocol)
• the right to liberty (Article 5)
• the right to life (Article 2) 
• freedom of expression (Article 10)
• freedom from discrimination (Article 14). 

Some human rights are absolute, and can never be interfered with, such as the right to life. However, some rights are qualified. This means there are situations when public authorities can interfere with rights, providing it can show it is lawful, necessary and proportionate to do so. An example might be where someone needs to be deprived of their liberty to protect their health, and the safety of others. 

Equality Act 

The Equality Act came into force on 1 October 2010. It provides a legal framework to protect the rights of individuals and advance equality of opportunity for all. It provides England with a discrimination law which protects individuals from unfair treatment and promotes a fair and more equal society.

Discrimination 

Organisations carrying out public functions cannot discriminate on any of the nine protected characteristics listed in the Equality Act 2010:

• age
• disability
• gender reassignment
• marriage and civil partnership
• pregnancy and maternity
• race
• religion or belief
• sex
• sexual orientation
• Public sector equality duty

The public sector equality duty requires all local government bodies (and bodies acting on their behalf) to have due regard to the need to:

• Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the Act.
• Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.
• Foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. 

The purpose of the equality duty is to embed equality and good relations into the day-to-day business and decision making of public authorities. It requires equality to be considered in the design of policies and the delivery of services, and for these matters to be kept under review.

Reasonable adjustments for people with disabilities 

The reasonable adjustment duty applies to any organisation that carries out a public function. It aims to make sure that a disabled person can use a service as similar as reasonably possible to how a non-disabled person would.

Organisations 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.

In May 2022 we published a report – Equal Access – which shared the learning from our investigations to help councils, and other local services, meet their legal duties to ensure everyone has an equal opportunity to access their services, whatever their needs. 

The Armed Forces Act and Covenant 

In addition to the Human Rights Act and Equality Act, protections are also afforded to specific groups who might experience unfair barriers in accessing local services. An example is the Armed Forces Act 2021 and Armed Forces Covenant.

All local councils in England are signatories to the Armed Forces Covenant. It promotes the fair treatment of active and former military personnel when accessing public services. 

The Armed Forces Act 2021 enshrines parts of the Armed Forces Covenant into law, to ensure that serving and former members of the armed forces, and their families, are able to access housing, education and health services without unfair disadvantage. 

Complaint statistics and trends

Our decisions have always implicitly touched on the rights and protections of individuals when they access local services. But in recent years, we have become more explicit when deciding organisations have failed to take account of an individual’s rights. Our findings and recommendations increasingly refer to legislation like the Human Rights Act and Equality Act. This is an important step to help inform the public about their legal rights, and to educate organisations about their responsibilities. 

To reach this point, we have increased the training and support to our casework staff, to help them make focused enquiries and decisions on cases relating to individuals’ rights. We have also improved our IT systems to help us record data and trends about these types of complaints. 

In 2021-22 we made 103 decisions in which the Equality Act was a significant aspect in our findings. Most of these cases involved organisations failing to think about making reasonable adjustments to accommodate people with disabilities. We also saw cases about how councils designed their services with a view to eliminating discrimination, and individual stories from people who felt they were treated less favourably because of their race or religion. 

We also made 51 decisions linked to the Human Rights Act. Most of these cases involved the right to a private family life, particularly in relation to how adult residential care services are arranged. We also saw cases in which councils had failed to provide education for children; where they deprived individuals of their liberty unfairly; and where they failed to take account of people’s right to express themselves freely. 

The case studies in the next part of the report illustrate how individuals’ rights play an important role in the design and delivery of services, and how they form a crucial consideration when people make complaints.