Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman

What does the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman do?

The Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman (formerly known simply as the Local Government Ombudsman) deals with complaints about local authorities and care providers.

The service is there for you to use if you aren’t able to resolve a problem directly with the council or care provider themself: you should always contact the council as your first step, and give them an opportunity to put things right.

Most local authorities have an established complaints procedure which you need to follow. The Ombudsman cannot consider your complaint until you have completed this process.
 

Complaints about social care keep rising

The number of complaints received by the LGSCO keeps on rising. A product of increasing need for services and the desperate financial and staffing shortages which make it more and more difficult for local authorities to get anywhere near meeting their obligations.

How do they decide which complaints to follow up on?

As it is impossible to investigate all complaints received, the ombudsman service applies a system of triage, to decide which cases are most important for them to look at.

This is their Assessment Code, which is applied evenhandedly, irrespective of how complaints come to their attention.

They look at the facts, as presented by the complainant and the service provider, making brief enquiries if necessary to clarify the situation.

The complainant is expected to make clear:

• what they believe the service provider has done wrong
• the injustice they believe they have suffered as a direct result
• what they are looking for to put the matter right
 

Assessment Code comes in two parts

The first part is described as Jurisdictional – this essentially decides whether a complaint falls within the remit of the ombudsman service.

The LGSCO cannot consider complaints about:

• a matter that is going to court
• criminal matters
• some commercial matters
• employment issues
• some educational matters

The complaint also has to come from a member of the public, or someone acting on their behalf. The council’s complaints procedure has to have been exhausted before the ombudsman can intervene, and the complaint has to arrive in time – usually within a year.

Finally, if the ombudsman considers that the complainant could get a resolution from another body, notably the Courts, they expect them to use that route.
 

The discretionary stage of the Assessment Code

There are four elements making up the second stage of the code:

• The Public Interest Test, which assesses the level of wider public interest arising from the individual case.

• The Injustice Test considers the level of personal injustice claimed to have been caused as a direct result of the actions or inactions of the service provider.

• The Fault Test assesses the scale and nature of the fault that the complainant alleges, and whether it is directly linked to the injustice claimed.

• The Remedy Test looks at how likely it is that the ombudsman will be able to achieve a meaningful outcome to the complaint.

They either consider the combined impact of all four tests when deciding whether or not to investigate or in some instances, the significance of one particular test may be enough to determine what action is appropriate.

Staff use their experience and judgement to carry out this balancing exercise to apply these tests to the unique facts of each case. Complaints are not scored, weighted or rated according to any numerical formula.

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Change of name reflects the Ombudsman’s activities

In June 2017, the LGO became the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman (LG&SCO). Complaints about social care represent the largest category of work for the service. Education and children’s services also attract many of the complaints received.

Notably, complaints related to planning matters have declined significantly: they now represent just 13% of the total, down from nearly a third, previously.

The Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman is responsible for investigating complaints about private care providers, as well as services directly provided by the council.
 

Adult Social Care, public and private provisions

Separating out adult social care from other matters, the review of the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman service for last year highlights key statistics in their investigations into both local authority and privately provided care services.

Complaints now tend to be more complex, reflecting improvements in the way local authorities handle complaints made to them in the first instance. Only the knottier problems tend to get referred on to the ombudsman.

Since the budget for the service was cut by 37% in 2010, the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman has had to operate a strict triage system. They only deal with the most serious cases, and only where all other possibilities of recourse have been exhausted.

They apply an Assessment Code to ensure that decisions about which cases they can help with are taken fairly (link will open in a new browser window)
 

Adult social care guides launched July 2018

Working in collaboration with Healthwatch England, the LGO has launched a new guide for councils and care providers, to help them deal more effectively with complaints.

The guidance is in the form of a single complaints statement, which sets out best practice in receiving and dealing with comments, complaints and feedback about services.

It will help service providers to explain clearly what service users, their families and representatives can expect when making a complaint. There are simple, bullet-point guides for each stage of the complaints process.

This has come about as part of the Quality Matters initiative, which aims to improve the quality and consistency of adult social care provision across the country.

The launch of the complaints statement also includes a separate document for service users, to help them better understand the complaints process. This is available in an accessible ‘EasyRead’ version as well.

You can download the documents in PDF format from this page of the ombudsman’s website (external link will open in a new browser window)
 

What services can the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman look at?

Complaints regarding most council services can be referred to the ombudsman, including:

• Social care, including privately arranged adult social care
• Planning
• Education
• Some housing matters, but not landlord/tenant issues, which are dealt with by the Housing Ombudsman Service
• Housing benefit
• Council tax
• Transport and highways
• Environment and waste
• Neighbour nuisance and antisocial behaviour
 

What Sort of Complaints Can the Ombudsman Consider?

If something has gone wrong with the way a service has been delivered, or if the service has not been delivered at all. The Ombudsman can also consider whether the council has reached its decision in the right way.

These are examples of things going wrong that they can look at:

• Taking too long to do something
• Not following their own rules, or not obeying the law
• Failing to meet appropriate standards
• Providing incorrect information
• Taking a decision wrongly, by not considering all the relevant information, or taking account of irrelevant information, or by disregarding their own decision-making procedures

They can’t investigate just because you disagree with what the council has done or decided.

The Ombudsman is unlikely to get involved if they do not believe that you have suffered significant personal injustice because of the organisation’s actions or decisions; or if the council has already taken steps to put things right, or is willing to do so.
 

What The Ombudsman Can Do

If the Ombudsman finds that the council or care provider has done something wrong, they will ask them to put things right. There is no legal power to force them to comply, but they almost always do. The sort of actions that the Ombudsman might recommend include:

• Making an apology
• Providing a service that they haven’t been providing
• Reconsidering a decision they have taken
• Improving procedures so that this problem doesn’t recur
• Making a payment, including reimbursing losses or costs incurred because of their action/inaction

Councils are unlikely to be required to pay fees for your legal or professional advisers, as you should not normally need their help to take your complaint to the ombudsman.
 

How to Submit a Complaint

There are two ways to do this – on the phone to their helpline, 0300 061 0614, which is open from Monday to Friday, 8:30 AM to 5 PM, or on the LGO website.

In fact, they advise calling the helpline first, even if you want to use the online form. They will then be able to advise whether your complaint is one that they can help with; confirm any steps you should take with the council before submitting your complaint; what information you should submit to help them judge your case; and how long the process is likely to take.

They consider that 12 weeks is a reasonable amount of time for the council or care provider to consider and respond to your complaint in the first instance. You should make your complaint to the ombudsman within 12 months of discovering the council’s error, or otherwise explain to them why you were not able to act sooner.
 

Possible Outcomes

If the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman decides that your case should be investigated, there are four possible outcomes:

• they find the council or care provider at fault, and make recommendations as to how to put things right
• they find the council or care provider was at fault, but they have already taken steps to put things right
• although the council or care provider was at fault, you haven’t suffered significant injustice because of it
• they find no fault with the way that the council or care provider has acted

Most decisions take the form of a statement, but sometimes the ombudsman writes a formal report, if the council doesn’t agree with their recommendations, for example, or if the matter is of public interest. Your name will not be made public, in any case, nor should you publicise information received from the ombudsman.

Their investigations are always carried out in private, and their conclusions anonymised, when they are published.

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Further reading and resources

LGSCO investigates missing therapy in Bucks

LGSCO launches AI virtual assistant

Ombudsman looking at challenges faced by disabled people in the housing sector

Care budget cut by Croydon Council led to broken back

The EHRC is investigating how easily people can challenge social care decisions that aren’t right for them

Every council has a Monitoring Officer with a duty to look into allegations of unlawfulness by the council – more details here

The Ombudsman reminds councils about rights to support during care assessments

Worryingly, a council may sometimes disregard the ombudsman’s findings, and they have no legal power of enforcement – Shropshire Council taken to task here

You can read an anonymous inside account of the Shropshire Council case here

Ombudsman issues rare public notice – you can read it here

LGSCO annual review of adult social care complaints

Councils warned about disregarding human rights of disabled people

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