The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has laid its Annual Report and Accounts before parliament, for the period April 2022 – March 2023.

In that time, the Ombudsman’s investigations saw councils and care providers agree to make 2,578 service improvement recommendations – the highest number ever recorded.

In addition to putting things right for people that have complained, service improvements make things better for everybody using services. They typically comprise of actions like reviewing policies and procedures, improving public information and training staff.

Chief Executive and Accounting Officer, Nigel Ellis, said:

“I am pleased to report that despite the difficult environment we worked in, our investigations improved services for many more people than before, providing even better value for the public purse.

“We also completed more than half of our cases within 20 working days. This is a fantastic achievement because we know how important it is for people to have certainty as soon as possible on whether we will look into their concerns in more detail.

“Yet we achieved these results while having to subsume rising costs within a static operating budget. This saw us introduce a recruitment freeze leading to a 10% reduction in headcount within the year.”

In 2022-23, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman dealt with 16,963 cases. Of the 4,301 complaints in which it carried out a detailed investigation, the Ombudsman upheld 74% (3,203 in number).

Article date: 19 December 2023