Nottinghamshire County Council had fewer complaints upheld by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) compared to the national average among similar local authorities.
The Ombudsman carried out full investigations into 27 complaints about the county council for the period between 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024.
Of those, 81 per cent (22 complaints) were upheld – set against the national average of 85 per cent – which equates to 2.6 upheld decisions per 100,000 residents. The national average is 4.5 upheld decisions per 100,000 residents.
In total, the county council received 1,146 complaints during the 12-month period – with 96 being referred to the LGSCO, which made decisions on 76 cases.
Forty-nine cases were closed after initial complaints were made of the county council and 20 were referred back to the authority as the complainants had either not complained previously or had not completed the process.
Some cases were found to be invalid complaints, while several complainants were referred elsewhere.
It means that less than two per cent of the county council’s overall complaints have an upheld Ombudsman decision – which ‘compares favourably’ to the trend nationally, where there has been an increase in the rate of upheld cases.
Seventeen of the 22 upheld cases were in children’s services (12 in special education), three in adult social care and two in highways.
However, the Ombudsman was satisfied that the county council had successfully implemented 100 per cent of the recommendations she made.
The county council’s performance was highlighted in the LGSCO Annual Review letter it received from Amerdeep Somal, Chairman of the Commission for Local Administration in England.
Moving forward, the county council is working hard to ‘deliver services expected of it’ by residents and is looking at how it can provide satisfactory remedies before reaching the Ombudsman.
This includes:
- The complaints team continuing to carry out workshops around complaint handling and providing remedy;
- Using the Ombudsman guidance to remedy if fault is identified when dealing with a complaint;
- Liaising with the Ombudsman for further support and with other councils which have higher rates of satisfactory remedy;
- Staff attending Ombudsman-led training;
- Signposting departments to previous cases and examples of Ombudsman remedy when fault or service failure is identified.
Councillor Philip Owen, Chairman of the County Council’s Governance and Ethics Committee, said: “The statistics are pleasing and, while we’ve always said that one complaint where fault has been found against us is one too many, it is always encouraging to hear that the work and care provided by our staff remains at the highest level.
“This once again demonstrates that the processes we have in place are robust and ensure our services are being delivered as residents expect them to be.
“However, we will use the data to scrutinise the services we provide and are committed to reviewing and monitoring them to ensure the best outcomes for all concerned.
“As a local authority, we strive to make right any complaints made against us where fault is found and agree with the Ombudsman suitable remedies as needed.”
