Ombudsman did not uphold any complaints for Lancaster City Council in latest recorded statistics

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has issued its annual complaints statistics for all councils in the north west in its annual review of local government complaints.
The ombudsman did not uphold any complaints for Lancaster City Council between April 1 2019 and March 31 2020.The ombudsman did not uphold any complaints for Lancaster City Council between April 1 2019 and March 31 2020.
The ombudsman did not uphold any complaints for Lancaster City Council between April 1 2019 and March 31 2020.

Issued every year, the review summarises the complaints the Ombudsman has received, and identifies the trends the organisation is seeing across England.

At the same time, the Ombudsman writes to local councils giving them a round-up of the complaints the organisation has received about them.

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And for Lancaster City Council, the organisation found that neither of the two reported investigations - which are confidential - for the period between April 1 2019 to March 31 2020 were upheld.

This compares to an average of 45 per cent in similar authorities.

For the previous year, between April 1 2018 and March 31 2019, there was one investigation which was also not upheld.

The review shows the Ombudsman has made more than 1,600 recommendations to improve services for the wider public in the past year – up 12 per cent on the previous year.

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Service improvement recommendations are when councils agree to review policies, procedures and staff training, to avoid other people being affected by the same fault in a case.

Over the same period the Ombudsman has upheld a greater proportion of the complaints it investigates, from 58 per cent last year to 61 per cent.

But on a positive note, this figure includes a higher number of cases where the Ombudsman agreed with the way the council had offered to put things right before the complaint got to the Ombudsman.

This figure has increased from 11 per cent to 13 per cent – demonstrating the sector is increasingly learning from its own complaints.

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The Ombudsman publishes information on the extent to which councils comply with its recommendations.

Last year 99.4 per cent of recommendations were agreed and carried out by councils.

Michael King, Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, said: “While we are seeing more and more complex cases beset by systemic problems, we are also increasingly working with councils to identify the root of those problems and making recommendations to improve the underlying policies and procedures causing them.

“These service improvements highlight the power one single complaint can have – when dealt with properly – to prevent problems reoccurring and improve services for others.

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“The cases highlighted in my report reflect the reality of local authority life prior to the Covid-19 crisis, but I believe it is all the more important now to deal with complaints properly and to harness this free public feedback.

“Councils’ readiness on the whole to work with us to implement our practical recommendations to improve the services they provide demonstrates the sector has a mature attitude to complaint handling - one which we have advocated throughout our work”

Across the north west, most complaints relate to children and education (25 per cent) with the fewest being about housing (5 per cent).

The highest uphold rate is children and education (79 per cent) - this is the joint highest uphold rate in the country for this casework area.

The lowest uphold rate is in planning (30 per cent).

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Coun Dr Erica Lewis, leader of Lancaster City Council, said: “The small number of complaints dealt with by the ombudsman over the last two years is testament to the quality of the services the council provides its residents and the excellent standards maintained by its workforce in delivering them.

“We are very proud of the work we do to help improve the lives of those living and working in our communities as well as in addressing the needs of the district as whole.

“In dealing with any complaints that we receive we are keen to learn lessons from feedback whilst striving to improve the services that are important to our residents even further.”