Agenda item

To inform the Standards Committee about the Annual Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman’s Letter for 2018/19.

Recommended                -    That the Standards Committee welcomes the Ombudsman’s letter and notes the report.

The Committee considered a report of the Executive Director (Legal and Democratic Services) about the annual local Government Ombudsman’s (LGO’s) letter for 2019.

Members were informed that the LGO had now published its annual complaint figures in respect of each local authority.

The LGO received a low level of complaints about Hyndburn, which made it difficult to identify trends from the statistical information provided.  The low level of complaints might however reflect good service delivery and / or a good internal complaint handling process.

In summary, in 2018/19 the LGO  had received 8 complaints about the Council.  The table below showed the service areas to which the complaints related and compared this to the position in the last two financial years:

During this period the LGO also determined 11 complaints about the Council.  Details were set out in the table below, which also compared this to the position in the last 2 financial years:

Complaints would usually be referred back to the Council for resolution because the complaint to the Ombudsman was made before the complainant had been through the Council’s own complaints procedure.

Most importantly, the Ombudsman’s letter did not flag up any areas of concern about either the Council’s services or its procedures for dealing with complaints.

The table below showed a comparison between the Council’s position and that of neighbouring District Councils over the same period.  This exercise also did not indicate any obvious cause for concern in respect of the Council, with Hyndburn receiving a comparable number of complaints to its neighbours:

A copy of this report had also been considered by the Cabinet on 13^th November 2019.  The Cabinet welcomed the Ombudsman’s letter for 2018/19 and noted the report.

The Chair commented that Hyndburn’s figures seemed good in comparison to the other Lancashire authorities.  He also noted that Benefits and Council Tax and Planning Services sometimes attracted complaints from persons who had not received a favourable decision.  Referral to the LGO was sometimes used as an attempt to challenge the decision, rather than as a complaint about the process.

Resolved                           -    That the Committee welcomes the Ombudsman’s letter and notes the report.