Local Government Ombudsman

Written evidence submitted by the Commission for Local Administration in England (Local Government Ombudsman)

1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

 

1.1 The role of the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) over nearly 40 years has been to provide independent resolution of complaints. In a time of financial constraint the LGO will continue to provide more proportionate dispute resolution with a single headquarters and leaner management structure.

1.2 The organisation has taken the lead in responding to changes in the provision of adult social care, such as direct payments, which resulted in an extension of our jurisdiction to all registered social care providers in October 2010. Our experience in this new area of work, incorporating private care providers, will stand us in good stead for other proposed changes in local public service delivery.

1.3 Independent research commissioned by the organisation has shown that our arrangements for complaint handling through our advice and investigative teams is well-regarded in terms of providing independent review and individual redress. Advocates, who deal with many of the most vulnerable in society, were particularly positive about the LGO.

1.4 In 2010-11 the LGO has met all of its key performance indicators for handling complaints.

1.5 The LGO adds public value in addition to achieving individual redress in a number of ways. This includes providing training to bodies under their jurisdiction to ensure that the effectiveness of local resolution of complaints is enhanced.

1.6 Value is also added through the publication of reports and focus reports on service areas, highlighting lessons learned from complaints. This supports the local resolution of complaints, effective public administration and improved service delivery.

1.7 By providing public data on complaints, through annual reviews and a plan to publish all decision statements, the Ombudsman will support and enhance its own accountability and scrutiny, and provide a greater wealth of information to support the local democratic function and to inform citizens about local services.

1.8 Looking ahead, the LGO remains an important and impartial arbiter of complaints, offering free and direct access to the public, many of whom are vulnerable. Changes to the provision of public services will no doubt present challenges. In this climate the LGO remains a key part of the administrative justice landscape ensuring fairness for all.

2 THE ROLE OF THE COMMISSION AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT OMBUDSMAN

 

2.1 The Commission for Local Administration in England was established under the Local Government Act 1974. It is an independent body funded by annual grant from the Government to support the activities of the Local Government Ombudsmen (LGO). The Commission comprises the Local Commissioners (Local Government Ombudsmen) and the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration (Parliamentary Ombudsman). The Commission’s statutory functions are:

· to enable the Ombudsmen to investigate complaints, in particular by allocating them staff, offices and facilities

· to provide bodies within jurisdiction with advice and guidance on good administrative practice.

2.2 There are currently two Local Commissioners (Local Government Ombudsmen), Anne Seex and Jane Martin. They are Crown appointments with individual authority to investigate and decide complaints. They have wide discretion to initiate investigation and decide complaints bearing in mind the most effective use of public funds. Their jurisdiction is currently allocated on geographical areas. Legislation requires that the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government appoints one Local Commissioner as Chair and one as Vice-Chair of the Commission.

2.3 As Vice-Chair of the Commission, Jane Martin has been the Acting Chairman and Chief Executive since the retirement of Sir Tony Redmond in November 2010. During this period Nigel Karney, Deputy Chief Executive and Secretary, has acted as Accounting Officer.

2.4 The Commission’s mission is to ‘Provide an independent means of redress to individuals for injustice caused by unfair treatment or service failure by local authorities, schools and care providers and use our learning to promote good public service administration and service improvement’. There are four strategic objectives to deliver this mission:

· Provide a complaints handling service direct to the public which is accessible, responsive, consistent and cost-effective.

· Ensure sound decisions and appropriate redress based on impartial, rigorous and proportionate investigations.

· Use our knowledge of complaints to identify best practice and issues of wider public benefit, promote good public administration and service improvement, and influence public policy.

· Ensure proper stewardship of public funds through the proper use of resources and effective public accountability.

2.5 Under the Regulatory Reform Order 2007, the LGO conducts joint investigations with the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO). These complaints generally cover health and social care.

The changing landscape impacting on our role

2.6 From 1st October 2010 the jurisdiction of the LGO was extended to include all registered care providers in England, some 13,000 bodies operated by private or independent organisations. This change provides access to redress for all users of social care including those who fund their own care.

2.7 In April 2010 the LGO also gained jurisdiction over schools in relation to complaints about internal matters. This was introduced in fourteen local authority areas on a pilot basis. The Education Act 2011 repealed the LGO jurisdiction, restoring the Secretary of State’s power to consider school complaints. The LGO service will end in July 2012 with all complaints about internal school matters, having to be completed by 31st March 2013.

2.8 As a result of the Localism Act 2011, from April 2013 local authority tenants will take complaints about their landlord to the Independent Housing Ombudsman (IHO). We are currently in dialogue with the IHO about the transfer of responsibilities.

2.9 The Open Public Services White Paper in July 2011 highlighted the Ombudsmen as having a role in upholding people’s right to choice. The LGO has responded to the White Paper and are engaged, alongside other public service ombudsmen, in early discussions with the Cabinet Office.

Transformation and proposed restructuring of the organisation

2.10 In the context of a reduced budget over the Comprehensive Spending Review period the Commission has developed a Transformation Plan, which will maintain a stable and sustainable LGO scheme.

2.11 It will:

· Rationalise the LGO’s accommodation down to one head office base.

· Reduce the staffing complement including a leaner management structure and a reduced corporate services function.

· Introduce a new business model with a refocused, more robust, intake and assessment process which resolves complaints swiftly and proportionately, and provides for greater flexibility within the overall investigation process.

· Place greater emphasis on the impact and influence generated from insight from our complaints for wider public benefit and public value.

3 INVESTIGATING COMPLAINTS

 

3.1 The LGO scheme provides free, direct access for citizens to an independent and impartial investigation of complaints of personal injustice caused by maladministration or service failure.

3.2 The LGO Advice Team deals with all initial contacts by phone, email, letter, or through the online complaint form. The advisers clarify complaints and will signpost complainants back to the body in jurisdiction if the complaint has not completed its internal process, or other relevant bodies. Independent research commissioned by the LGO has highlighted that the advisers dealt with a range of difficult and complex calls in a highly professional manner.

3.3 Advisers forward complaints to one of the three offices depending on the location of the body complained about. Where appropriate, complaints will be fast tracked to an investigator without referring back to the body in jurisdiction first, for example in urgent homelessness cases. All cases are dealt with by a dedicated investigator against time targets. Once an investigator has enough evidence of fault they will seek to remedy any injustice caused as soon as possible. They send a provisional decision to both parties for further comment before reaching a final decision. Although representation is not required, some complaints from our most vulnerable complainants are received through an advocate, or advice agencies such as the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) and the Children’s Legal Centre. In 2010, customer satisfaction research [1] showed that users were positive about the LGO service, although the research highlighted that satisfaction is often linked to the complaint outcome.

3.4 Complainants can request an internal review of their complaint within a three month period. A senior member of staff, who has had no previous involvement in the complaint and does not line manage the investigator, will carry out the review. The LGO considers lessons learned from reviews to help to improve the quality of the service.

The volume and nature of complaints

3.5 The details of the volume and nature of complaints are set out in our Annual Report 2010/11.

3.6 In 2010/11 the LGO Advice Team dealt with 95,000 contacts, and received 21,840 complaints and enquiries, an increase of more than 21% from the previous year.

3.7 In the same year, the investigative teams dealt with 11,249 complaints across a whole range of subjects, an increase of 7.5% from the previous year. Education and children’s services formed the largest category of complaints, increasing by 15% from the previous year. Complaints about special educational needs also rose significantly. Adult social care complaints concerning councils increased by nearly 50%.

3.8 Looking at trends in complaints over the last 5 years there has been a considerable increase in adult social care complaints, which constituted 4.3% of all complaints in 2006/07 and in 2010/11 constituted 9% of complaints. A rise can also be seen for education and children services complaints over the same period from 11.9% of all complaints to 24%.

Key performance indicators 2010-11

3.9 Investigation teams decided 10,725 local government complaints, compared with our target of 10,500 decisions.

3.10 The LGO exceeded its targets for the times taken to decide these complaints (54.2% decided within 13 weeks, 83.4% within 26 weeks and 97% within 52 weeks against targets of 50%, 80% and 96% respectively).

3.11 2% of complaints made about LGO decisions were found to be justified, following rigorous internal review, which out-performed the target of 3%.

3.12 There were no successful applications for judicial review. This is the only challenge to the Ombudsmen’s decisions following internal review.

3.13 In 2010/11 the total number of complaints where redress was obtained or recommended for the complainant was in 2,474 cases or 27% of all complaints determined. Of these, 2,215 were remedied by a local settlement where the body agrees to undertake satisfactory actions to remedy the complaint during the course of an investigation. The LGO also decided that there was no maladministration or insufficient evidence of maladministration in 4,218 cases or 39% of complaints determined.

4 IMPACT OF THE WORK OF THE LGO

 

Remedying individual injustice and improving local public services

4.1 At the core of the LGO’s mission is a focus on providing individual redress as well as improving local public services.

4.2 The LGO always takes account of complainants’ views. We ask them at the outset about their views on injustice and appropriate remedies. But we are independent and arrive at our own view of what is a fair and appropriate remedy.

4.3 We seek to put the person affected by the injustice back in the position they would have been in, had the fault not happened, as quickly as possible. Our recommendations will ask the body in jurisdiction to take actions to do so where this is still possible. For example, to conduct a care assessment, offer adequate new accommodation or offer a fresh admissions appeal hearing. Only if it is not possible will we then consider asking for a compensatory payment.

4.4 Complainants appreciate recognition of fault and injustice by the body in jurisdiction and our recommendations very often include a request for an apology. In 2010/11, this remedy was obtained in 631 cases or 26% of cases where a remedy was recorded.

4.5 We will also often ask the body in jurisdiction to address systemic failings as part of the remedy. This can involve revising policies and procedures that have been revealed to be inadequate as well as ensuring staff undertake training. In 2010/11 there were 288 cases in which the LGO asked bodies to review policies and/or procedures. This ensures that the value of an individual complaint has a long term effect and should positively impact on other service users, preventing future cases of maladministration and injustice, as well as cases coming to LGO.

4.6 The LGOs have no powers to enforce their recommendations for remedy where they have found the council at fault. The LGO’s recommendations are accepted by Councils in all but a very small number of cases.

Recent cases

4.7 We achieve remedy for all categories of complaint, the following three brief examples give an indication of impact. A young man who had been a looked after child and subject to a care order since the age of 13 complained to the LGO about a number of matters. At the centre of the complaint was the fact that the council had failed to fulfil its duty as a ‘parent’ in a number of ways. They had placed him with a series of unsuitable carers growing up, exposing him to drugs, domestic violence and neglect. They failed to facilitate sibling contact, ensure that he was involved in care decisions, and to provide advice about education and employment opportunities. The investigation found incomplete records on the complainant by social workers. To provide redress the LGO recommended that the council explain procedures to the affected person, broker contact with his siblings and establish a fund to help him to enter into employment or training.

4.8 A school admissions complaint provided wider justice to pupils and parents affected. The complaint received revealed that due to the lack of effective admissions criteria set by the local authority, a primary school had been mandated to accept more pupils than they could accommodate, leading them to teach reception classes in the outdoors. In response to the investigation the council changed its admission criteria to include a distance tie-break in catchment area criteria, preventing a repeat situation. Additional classrooms were also provided at another site.

4.9 The LGO provided redress for a number of individuals in a recent parking case, where the council introduced charges for blue badge holders and evening users without adequate communication and publicity. A number of people were unfairly charged an excess charge notice of £80 as they were unaware of the policy change. The LGO’s finding of maladministration causing injustice led the council to fully reimburse those affected so that they were back in the position they would have been in, if maladministration had not occurred.

Adult social care complaints

4.10 We have over many years received complaints on a range of issues in this area including the quality of care, hygiene, neglect and abuse, nutrition, deprivation of liberty, hospital discharge and moving into residential care. Common complaints subjects included charging, safeguarding and council assessments. Since the extension of our jurisdiction in October 2011 to include all registered care providers, complaints have often covered several overlapping issues, with poor communication often being a key feature. Around three quarters of complaints investigated under the LGO’s new jurisdiction have been about residential care, the most common subjects were care quality and fees.

Education complaints

4.11 We have for many years handled school admission appeal complaints as well as complaints about special education needs, school transport and exclusion appeals. From April 2010, we have received (often multi-faceted) complaints about a range of issues, including bullying, curriculum, behaviour and discipline.

4.12 During this period the LGO has had a positive impact on the way in which schools deal with complaints. Independent research commissioned by the Government into school complaints [1] found "tangible evidence that the LGO service has increased capacity for complaints handling" with regards to complaints about internal school matters.

Supporting good local public administration and complaints handling

LGO reports

4.13 The LGO issues and publishes a report on a complaint when it is necessary to bring it to the wider attention of the body in jurisdiction and the public. Through this process we make recommendations for remedy and follow up to ensure compliance. In 99% of these cases, bodies in jurisdiction comply. In 2010/11 we issued reports on 29 complaints. For 2011/12 to date, we have issued 47 reports.

Special and focus reports

4.14 The LGO publishes special reports and focus reports on specific service areas to communicate where things can go wrong and to identify lessons learned. In the last year we have published a number of focus reports on:

· School admissions – focused on the rights of parents and pupils to a fair and impartial school appeal hearing, and how councils can ensure that happens.

· Children out of school – urging councils to ensure that children’s rights to full-time education are met and to avoid some of the common mistakes made when providing education to children not in school.

· Ensuring justice for homeless people – asking councils to consider how the people who face homelessness get the help they are entitled to.

· Councils’ use of bankruptcy powers – highlighting flaws in the way councils pursue bankruptcy for council tax debts.

4.15 A recent survey of local government revenue officers provided positive feedback on the bankruptcy focus report. 85% said they found it useful, most followed the steps identified in the report for avoiding maladministration, and the vast majority said they would take action to put the other steps in place.

4.16 Comments included:

"Having read the report we will be looking at our current procedure and ways we can improve this."

"This was useful to review the current procedure and can see how some steps already taken could be tightened further."

Annual reviews of councils

4.17 Each year the LGO publishes annual reviews for councils which summarise : the numbers of complaints received by LGO about them in a business year; the outcomes; any lessons in handling complaints; and more generally, the services that complaints have focused on. These reviews should form a key part of the local authority’s own accountability and scrutiny function.

4.18 In July 2011 the LGO published a report in conjunction with the Centre for Public Scrutiny (CfPS) about how complaints information can feed into local authority scrutiny and business planning arrangements.

Decision statements

4.19 During the next year, the LGO intends to establish an open publication scheme where the final decision statement on all cases will be published in an anonymised format on the LGO’s website This will provide a comprehensive picture of complaint outcomes for the public and for bodies in jurisdiction and a greater wealth of information on maladministration, service failure and injustice, as well as where practice is validated through an LGO investigation. This will help service providers and users of services to judge their own experience of local service provision and the role of the local authority.

Supporting local complaints handling

4.20 The LGO support local complaint resolution as the most speedy route to remedy. Councils and care providers should have full opportunity to review their own practice and to correct any mistakes. This is better both for the complainants and service providers.

4.21 Since April 2009 the LGO has operated a ‘Council First’ policy which requires complainants to have first gone through all stages of the council’s own complaints procedure before complaining to the LGO. The same principle is also applied to all other bodies in jurisdiction. Exceptions to this policy can be applied. These include urgent and high-risk complaints, such as those regarding homelessness and also some education complaints, as well as those where there has already been unreasonable delay.

4.22 To support local complaints handling, since 2005 the LGO has had an active programme of training on effective complaints handling for bodies in jurisdiction. In 2011/12, 76 courses were delivered to councils, reaching 1,230 individual learners.

4.23 We evaluate the effectiveness of our training and aim to constantly improve what we deliver. A survey of participants in 2010 showed that our training had helped 90% of respondents to improve complaint-handling practice, with 68% of respondents giving specific examples of improvements directly attributable to LGO training. Participants are also very proactive in sharing their new skills and knowledge with colleagues.

4.24 In each council the LGO has a link officer who is the key contact for the organisation. We maintain regular contact through information bulletins and hold regular link officer seminars where we discuss current issues.

5 STRATEGIC PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT OF RESOURCES

 

5.1 The Commission sets out its strategic direction in a rolling three year Strategic Corporate Plan which sets out strategic objectives to deliver our mission, together with success criteria based on expected outcomes for service users and other stakeholders. This is supplemented by a one year Business Plan which specifies the initiatives that will achieve those outcomes and which forms the basis of the Commission’s request for funding from its sponsor Department. A Grant Memorandum agreed between the Commission and the sponsor Department (in the process of being updated) specifies the terms under which these funds are disbursed.

5.2 The Commission meets every eight weeks and, as part of business, receives monitoring information on financial and organisational performance.

5.3 Our Annual Report (and Annual Accounts) is a key vehicle for accountability to stakeholders, and is laid before Parliament in July. This states the extent to which our strategic objectives and other performance targets and assumptions have been met.

5.4 In 2010/11, we were pleased to report that we met all of our performance targets for the year (as reported earlier).

5.5 The Commission has established:

· an Audit Committee, chaired by an experienced independent person, which advises on matters of probity, regularity, efficiency and effectiveness, and also monitors and reports on the operation of the Commission’s Risk Management Strategy (based on the HM Treasury model)

· a Remuneration Committee, responsible for advising and making recommendations to the Commission on the remuneration and succession of senior staff and staff pay schemes.

Staff

5.6 The Commission employs 215 people (195.8 fte), based in three offices in London, Coventry and York. Approximately half the workforce are complaint investigators. They deal with a varied caseload of complaints and have delegated authority to investigate and take decisions on behalf of the Ombudsmen. Each of the three offices has a number of teams of investigators (12 in total), each headed by an Assistant Ombudsman. In addition to general purpose teams dealing with local government complaints, there are specialist teams dealing with children’s and schools related complaints, adult social care complaints, and (in York) planning and housing complaints.

5.7 There are currently 3 Deputy Ombudsmen , one in each office, and one Deputy Chief Executive and Secretary. Commission’s corporate and business activity is supported by a corporate services department of 31 people. The functions cover communications, human resources, finance, IT, legal, policy and research, property and facilities. The Advice Team in Coventry has 19 staff, consisting of 1 supervisor and 18 advisers.

Funding

5.8 The Commission is funded by grant in aid. Its sponsor department and primary source of funding is DCLG, but it also receives funding from DH in respect of the adult care self funder jurisdiction and DfE to cover the schools complaints service. In 2011/12 the Commission’s combined DCLG/DH Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL) was £14.839m and its DfE grant was £900,000.

5.9 The Commission’s DCLG/DH DEL is being reduced by £1m in 2012/13 - a 10.9% reduction. Its DfE funding for 2012/13 has yet to be settled but is expected to be £500,000; this is the final year of the schools service following abolition legislation in 2010; there will be no funding in 2013/14.

5.10 The Commission’s Transformation Plan addresses these reductions in funding with efficiency savings and changes in process, designed to minimise the impact on front line service delivery. The Commission anticipates an overall staffing reduction of 20.3 posts over three years in addition to voluntary redundancies currently being considered, bringing its total staffing to 175.5 fte. It will also rationalise its office space and senior management structure.

6 LOOKING AHEAD

 

6.1 Within a context of leaner resources the LGO plans to maintain and develop a relevant service for citizens and continue to support bodies in jurisdiction in improving public administration and service provision. By 2015, the scheme will have significantly reduced its expenditure while still achieving the strategic objectives and its statutory purpose.

Commission for Local Administration in England (LGO)
March 2012