Ombudsman Watch Open Blog

John Mann (Bassetlaw, Labour)

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government in which 20 parliamentary constituencies the most complaints were made to the Local Government Ombudsman in 2011.

Bob Neill (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Communities and Local Government; Bromley and Chislehurst, Conservative)

This information is not available. The Local Government Ombudsman’s data are about complaints relating to local authorities, the following table showing the 20 councils with the highest number of complaints in 2011.

Top 10 shown below for the full list and more details please click here.

Nicky Morgan (Loughborough, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what plans he has to extend the remit of the Local Government Ombudsman to cover (a) parish and (b) town councils.

Bob Neill (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Communities and Local Government; Bromley and Chislehurst, Conservative)

As I informed the House in my response to a question from my hon. Friend Steve Brine on 20 June 2011, Hansard, column 54W, we are open to representations on this matter, in particular in the context of our current consideration of a new and different role for ombudsmen with a focus on consumer choice as proposed in the Open Public Services White Paper.

Read from the source

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman report Listening and Learning: the Ombudsman’s review of complaint handling by the NHS in England 2010-11 features previously unpublished information about complaints that the NHS has failed to resolve locally.

It reveals which NHS trusts and which regions in England generated the most complaints to the Ombudsman’s Office (the second and final stage in the NHS complaints system) during the year. It also highlights the most common reasons for people to complain, and includes complaints information on every trust across the country.

Read more here

POLICE have been called in by the ombudsman to consider whether a criminal investigation should ensue following complaints made against the leader of Swansea Council, his deputy and a councillor.

Last month the Evening Post reported that Lib Dem Chris Holley and Independent John Hague had been referred to the local Government watchdog for Wales, along with Conservative councillor Paxton Hood- Williams.

A spokesman said: “South Wales Police has received correspondence from the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales in relation to complaints made against three elected members of the City and County of Swansea.

“The matter has been referred to police to consider whether or not a criminal investigation should be undertaken.

Read the full story

We know of no case in which the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) has ever reported either a council member of officer to the Police. No matter what alleged illegal activity they were involved in.

Here is an attempt by one of our supporters to find more information on the subject.

The government is set to backtrack on plans to bar tenants from taking their complaints to the Housing Ombudsman Service.

The government on Monday will seek to amend the Localism Bill to allow tenants to approach the ombudsman with their complaints in some circumstances.

As it stands the Localism Bill, which is currently going through the House of Lords, would prevent tenants from taking their complaint to the ombudsman.

Instead, tenants would have to approach a councillor, MP or tenant panel, known as the ‘democratic filter’ with their complaint, who could then refer it to the ombudsman.

Read more here

The Scottish public services ombudsman has strongly criticised local authorities and housing associations for their handling of complaints.

Jim Martin said complaints systems were often cumbersome and bureaucratic.

Of the complaints investigated by the ombudsman’s office in 2010-11, a total of of 34% were upheld either fully or partly.

Mr Martin said: “To put this another way, in over a third of cases that had already been investigated by the local service provider through multiple, often lengthy stages of review and appeal, that provider had got something wrong.”

Read the full story here

Note how the Scottish Ombudsman criticises local authorities whilst the pathetic English Local Government Ombudsmen still sends out glowing annual letters about English local authorities, even though many are much worse than the Scottish ones. The Welsh Public Service Ombudsman appears to be as bad as the English ones, which is understandable when you realise that they used to be one and the same organisation. More about the Welsh Ombudsmen from Malice in Blunderland  here and from Aberdare-on- Line here.

Also more here

Ombudsman Jim Martin complained there was a “lack of customer focus in public services”.

He made the accusation in his annual report as he called on public-sector organisations to try to meet a “gold standard”.

However, he said: “In too many cases, particularly in local authorities and housing associations, complaints systems are confusing, difficult to access, slow, cumbersome and overly bureaucratic.”

Note how his criticism exactly matches the Local Government Ombudsman’s way of working! “confusing, difficult to access, slow, cumbersome and overly bureaucratic”.

We have quite a lot of unpublished posts on this blog, therefore, can we bring the note on the PLEASE READ page to your attention.

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Will LK who contacted us recently please let us have another email address. The one you put on the contact form bounced. Without a valid email address we are unable to respond.

The Ombudsman for Wales’s office upheld a Complaint against Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council’s Adult Social Services department in February 2010 Case 200901324.

The Ombudsman for Wales’ website states quite clearly what action the Ombudsman should take:

“Ombudsman will say what the public body should do to make amends to the complainant” did this happen?

At this time the Ombudsman for Wales’ website says, “There are no publications currently active within this category” for Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council.

The complainant now waits in anticipation for the Ombudsman for Wales’ office to publicise its findings. They have a copy of his report, and following the publication of the findings will provide the full story of what really happened, allowing you to make your own mind up. However the complainant doesn’t believe that the Ombudsman will publicise the findings for the case. 

Read the full story from the source Aberdare On Line

Is the LGO (York Office) guilty of maladministration? Read this and decide for yourself. We think so, because the one thing a decision maker should never do is ignore expert evidence before reaching a decision.