Increasing systemic problems identified in residents’ complaints has led to the Local Government Ombudsman making more wider service improvement recommendations to councils than ever before.
The Ombudsman made 12% more service improvement recommendations in 2019/20, this week’s annual review of local government complaints revealed.
It said it was finding fault more often, with 61% of complaints investigated in detail upheld - up from 58% last year.
The highest proportion of complaints upheld (72%) were about education and children’s services, which also make up the largest proportion (21%) of the Ombudsman’s workload.
Further reports on authorities that failed to satisfactorily implement a recommendation or respond to a decision were issued four times in the year, with Dudley MBC, Medway Council, and West Sussex and Lincolnshire CCs on the end of criticism.
