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Digest of cases

The annual Digest of cases illustrates the nature of our work and the type of complaints we receive, and the reasoning behind our decisions. Highlighting human interest stories helps to explain the impact of our work in considering fault by councils and to increase understanding of our role. Cases in the Digest are selected from reports issued each year, plus some 'local settlements' where we discontinued an investigation because a council agreed to  a remedy.

In the 2008/09 Digest we have identified some common themes that feature in cases across different subject areas. These are:

  • Not taking into account the needs of service users
  • Ignorance of, or failure to follow, policies and guidance
  • Delays resulting in injustice
  • Making assumptions; not checking information 

You can find the full reports of the more recent cases in complaint outcomes (and you can order older reports which are not on this website by using our publications order form) but we cannot disclose further details about the few cases where we approved a local settlement as these are confidential. To protect the privacy of complainants and others the names used in the Digest  are not the real names.

Individual chapters are published in .pdf format.

 2002/032003/042004/052005/062006/072007/082008/09
Antisocial behaviour    Antisocial behaviourAntisocial behaviourAntisocial behaviour
BenefitsBenefitsHousing benefitBenefitsBenefitsBenefitsBenefitsBenefits
CommercialCommercial Commercial   Commerical
EducationEducationEducationEducationEducationEducationEducationEducation
Environmental healthEnvironmental healthEnvironmental healthEnvironmental healthEnvironmental healthEnvironmental healthEnvironmental healthEnvironmental health
HousingHousingHousingHousingHousingHousingHousingHousing
LandLandLandLand Land Land
Leisure and cultureLeisure  LeisureLeisure and culture Leisure and culture
Local taxationLocal taxationLocal taxationLocal taxationLocal taxationLocal taxationLocal taxationLocal taxation
PlanningPlanningPlanningPlanningPlanningPlanningPlanningPlanning
Social servicesSocial servicesSocial servicesSocial servicesSocial servicesSocial servicesSocial careSocial care
Transport and highwaysHighwaysHighwaysHighwaysHighwaysTransport and highwaysTransport and highwaysTransport and highways
Other services    Other services