Ombudsmen highlight significant cases in latest Digest
Archived press release
Date Published: 30/10/09
Failure to take in to account the needs of service users and ignorance of, or failure to follow, policies and guidance, are two of the common themes that feature across the cases selected for the Local Government Ombudsmen’s 13th annual Digest of cases.
Failure to take in to account the needs of service users and ignorance of, or failure to follow, policies and guidance, are two of the common themes that feature across the cases selected for the Local Government Ombudsmen’s (LGO) thirteenth annual Digest of cases. The new Digest aims to maximise the benefit of the LGOs’ work by highlighting cases of particular interest in 2008/09 so that local authorities and others may use the information to help improve public services.
Other common features identified across different subject areas in this year’s Digest are unreasonable delays and making assumptions without checking information.
Featured among the Ombudsmen’s 84 selections are:
- a case where a council contributed to a public service failure that led to the avoidable death of a 30-year-old man with learning disabilities, and failed to live up to human rights principles of dignity and equality: this was one of the ‘Six Lives’ cases, reported on jointly with the Health Service Ombudsman (L8);
- a case where a voluntary-aided faith school breached the mandatory provisions of both the School Admissions Code and the School Admission Appeals Code and the LGO found “very serious faults” (D2);
- a case where a council failed to deal properly with a housing application from a woman who had fled domestic violence and was living in a women’s refuge (F6); and
- a case where a council mishandled its own application for extensions to a school (K3).
Complainants obtained redress in just over 27 per cent of cases investigated.