The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has directed more improvements to councils in the past year than ever before.

In 2021-22, the Ombudsman made 1,848 service improvement recommendations, according to the newly-published annual review of complaints.

While a ‘vanishingly small’ amount of councils - 99.7% - complied, almost one in five did so late.

Ombudsman Michael King said: ‘The vast majority of councils agree to the recommendations we make and see them as common-sense ways of providing better services for people in their area. However this can only happen when councils act swiftly when they have committed to do so.

‘Unfortunately we are seeing some councils taking longer to make those changes, which put them at risk of making the same mistakes again. In 18% of cases we found compliance was late.’

The Ombudsman highlighted a case in which a council insisted a family pay a top-up fee for a relative’s care home place, despite not offering one where they did not need to pay extra.

Following the Ombudsman’s investigation, the council reviewed its processes and reimbursed a further 29 families.

Mr King added: ‘One complaint can have immense power to change things for the better, and we’re increasingly focusing on to how we, and the local authorities we investigate, take the learning from those complaints and improve service provision.’

Responding to the report, chairman of the Local Government Association’s improvement and innovation board, Cllr Peter Fleming, said: ‘We are pleased to see the recognition of the important role that elected members play in the integrity of the complaints process, and it is positive that in 99.7% of case councils are implementing recommendations made, showing that local authorities are determined to make sure these issues do not occur again.’