Agenda item

A report from the Director of Law & Democratic Services is attached.

The Monitoring Officer presented to Members of the Standards Committee a summary of the Local Government Ombudsman’s Annual Report for 2022-2023.

The Council received an Annual Report summarising all complaints dealt with by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (“LGO”). The Ombudsman provided, statistics on how complaints upheld against the Council were remedied and those not pursued. This year’s letter again includes a breakdown, showing the complaints and enquiries received and decisions made. The number of complaints and enquiries received for 22/23 as compared 21/22 had increased slightly but was still similar to pre Covid year figures.

The number of complaints upheld were 22 in 2022/23 and in relation to Childrens Services complaints, the majority of complaints involving the LGO are SEND (Special educational needs and disabilities) related.

The LGO acknowledged the challenges local authorities face, at the heart of many SEND complaints were children and young people going without the support they are entitled to, and the LGO would continue to hold authorities to account for what they are required to provide.

The LGO like many organisations have been focussed on doing the most they can with their resources, prioritising cases where it was in the public interest to investigate. As a result, they are less likely to carry out investigations into ‘borderline’ issues and are therefore finding a higher proportion of fault.

While allowing a more sustainable way for the LGO to work, the change means that their uphold rate has increased by 8% to 74% this year. The LGO confirm a steadily increasing uphold rate for several years, but this year’s increase is not wholly attributable to the nature of the cases that came to them.

The Annual Review letter provided an annual summary of statistics on the complaints made to the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) about Bury Council to the year ending 31^st March 2023.

The LGO had an interactive map of performance which showed annual performance data for all Councils in England, with links to published decision statements, public interest reports, annual letters and information about service improvements that have been agreed by each Council.  The intention of this tool was to place a focus on the authority’s compliance with the recommendations.

Councillor Green questioned the issue of a possible witness summons being produced and responding, the Monitoring Officer reported that there had been no issues with deliberately blocking a complaint and withholding information to the LGO.

Councillor Hayes enquired about a recommendation not being fulfilled and a new case being created. It was reported that the process involved a report going to Cabinet to create the requirements for compliance of the case.

Members of the committee analysed any trends within the number of complaints per service area.

The Monitoring Officer added that a piece of work was taking place to look at how complaints are dealt with and investigate any improvements to the function and upgrade of systems if required.

It was agreed:

That the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman Annual Review Letter be noted.