Summary: Ms B, who receives an assisted collection service, complains the Council repeatedly failed to return her bins to the agreed location and missed collections. She says the Council failed to fully accommodate her autism-related needs and did not handle properly the complaints she made by phone. The Ombudsman finds the Council at fault. The disruptions to Ms B’s assisted collections service caused her distress and inconvenience. To remedy the injustice caused to Ms B, the Council has agreed to apologise and make a payment to Ms B.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I shall refer to here as Ms B, complains that the Council:
1. has repeatedly failed to return her bins to the correct location and missed garden, refuse and recycling waste collections. She says she is registered for assisted collections and has complained many times since the problems began in February 2019, but the issues are continuing;
2. has failed to sensitively and appropriately accommodate her autism-related needs to ensure she can fully access its services; and
3. has failed to handle properly the formal complaints she has made by phone. Instead, she says the Council has treated them as service requests despite Ms B saying she wishes to make a formal complaint.
2. Ms B says the disruptions to her assisted collections have caused her a great deal of stress, frustration and inconvenience. The missed collections and failures to return bins cause her real practical problems. Ms B says bins have sometimes been left at the bottom of the ramp to her property blocking her access. She does not feel the Council understands how these matters have impacted her life as someone with mobility issues.
3. Ms B says the Council’s treatment has caused her to have meltdowns. This has made pursuing matters more difficult and Ms B is concerned it gives the Council an unfair impression.
4. She has also gone to time and trouble trying to get the Council to properly register her complaints.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

5. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
6. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
7. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
8. If we are satisfied with a council’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

9. I considered the information and documents provided by Ms B and the Council. I spoke to Ms B about her complaint.
10. I have considered the relevant legislation and Council policy, set out below.
11. I have also considered the Ombudsman’s:

• focus report: ‘Lifting the lid on bin complaints: learning to improve waste and recycling services’, published in August 2017 and available online; and,
• our guidance: ‘Effective Complaint Handling for local authorities’, published October 2020 and available online.

12. Ms B and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered all their comments before making a final decision.

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What I found

What should have happened – the law, policy and practice

13. Councils have a legal duty under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to collect household waste and recycling free of charge. The collections do not have to be weekly and councils can decide the type of bins or boxes people must use.
14. Most councils also provide discretionary services to collect garden waste and bulky items.
15. Many councils use a contractor to provide their waste and recycling services on their behalf. In such cases the council retains ultimate responsibility for ensuring the quality of the service and being accountable if things go wrong. The contractor may initially respond to reports of problems or complaints but the council retains ownership. Outsourced should not mean out of touch.
16. Councils provide an assisted collection service for people who are not able to move their bins and boxes due to a disability or age.

The Equality Act 2010

17. The Equality Act (“the Act”) provides a legal framework to protect the rights of individuals and advance equality of opportunity for all. It offers protection, in employment, education, the provision of goods and services, housing, transport and the carrying out of public functions.
18. Organisations carrying out public functions cannot discriminate on any of the nine protected characteristics listed in the Equality Act 2010. They are also subject to the general duties aimed at eliminating discrimination under the Public Sector Equality Duty.
19. Age and disability are two of the nine ‘protected characteristics’ under the Equality Act 2010. If a council provides a properly functioning assisted collection service, this should ensure the council is having due regard to its duties under the Equality Act when providing a waste collection service to people with these protected characteristics. It is an important way of removing certain barriers residents may otherwise face when accessing waste services due to disability or age.

Reasonable adjustments for people with disabilities

20. The reasonable adjustment duty is set out in the Equality Act 2010 and applies to councils. It aims to make sure that a disabled person can use a service as close as it is reasonably possible to get to the standard usually offered to non-disabled people.
21. Service providers are under a positive and proactive duty to take steps to remove or prevent obstacles to accessing their service. If the adjustments are reasonable, they must make them.
22. The duty is ‘anticipatory’. This means service providers cannot wait until a disabled person wants to use their services, but must think in advance about what disabled people with a range of impairments might reasonably need.
23. The Ombudsman cannot find that a council has breached the Equality Act; only a court may make such a finding. If a person believes they have been discriminated against as a result of the actions of a service provider, they may make a claim for damages in county court.
24. However, the Ombudsman can find a council at fault for failing to take account of its duties under the Act.
25. In July 2020, the Equality and Human Rights Commission, an independent statutory body, produced guidance on the Act titled ‘Equality Act 2010: Summary Guidance on Services, Public Functions and Associations’. Its guidance says: “Defending or taking a claim in court can be lengthy, expensive and draining. It can also have a damaging impact on the reputation of an organisation. It is likely to be in everyone’s interest to try to put things right before a claim is made to a court”.

Trafford Council’s Assisted Collections Policy

26. Trafford Council’s Assisted Collections Policy states it will provide an assisted collection service to residents with disabilities or mobility problems who find it hard to place their bins out for collection.
27. The Council’s contractors, Contractors X, collect the bins from wherever they are placed and return them to the same location once emptied.

Analysis – was there fault by the Council causing injustice

Ms B’s assisted collections service, missed collections and failures to return her bins to the correct location

28. Ms B complains the Council has repeatedly failed to return her bins to the correct location and missed garden, refuse and recycling waste collections. She says she is registered for assisted collections and has complained many times since the problems began in February 2019, but the issues are continuing (part a of the complaint).
29. Between February and April 2019, Ms B requested Contractors X make two residual collections to collect all the waste that had been left by previous tenants in her bins. Based on the evidence I have seen, I understand that Contractors X made residual collections in March and April 2019. I appreciate Ms B chased Contractors X on this matter, but I am satisfied with the action taken to resolve this issue by Contractors X on behalf of the Council. I do not find the Council at fault here.
30. Between March and the end of August 2019, Ms B reported nine missed bin collections to Contractors X.
31. I have seen evidence Contractors X returned to make the missed collections within one to two days for all but one of these reports where it established the collection was due the next again week. The Council has explained it aims to return to empty missed bins by the end of the next working day after receiving a missed bin report. This response time is broadly in line with Council’s timeframes for resolving missed collections and I do not find the Council at fault here.
32. In August 2019, Ms B complained to the Council about ongoing issues with her assisted collections, specifically about missed green waste bin collections. She had reported three missed green waste bin collections between July and August.
33. In its response to Ms B, the Council said it had taken action to discuss Ms B’s issues with crew members and to check her bin was empty. It said it had placed Ms B’s address on a monitoring list.
34. However, I have not seen evidence that shows this monitoring took place. This is fault. Ms B had reported a significant number of missed bins since moving home in March and I would have expected the Council to have consistently monitored Ms B’s assisted service over a period of time to ensure the issues were fully resolved. This caused Ms B uncertainty, inconvenience and frustration.
35. Between October and December, Ms B also made three separate complaints – one in each month - to the Council about the ongoing issues with her assisted collections, both in terms of missed collections and failures to return bins.
36. In its response to Ms B’s complaint from October, the Council accepted it had experienced problems with its waste service for a number of months and apologised for the issues. The Council gave Ms B assurances that changes to its services later in October would resolve issues with its waste services.
37. Given the ongoing issues Ms B was experiencing with her bins, I find the Council should have undertaken a period of monitoring of her service following the changes to make sure her issues were indeed resolved. This did not take place and is fault.
38. Ms B receives an assisted service, which, when running properly, accommodates her needs as a wheelchair user so she can access the Council’s waste services. In her complaint from December 2019, Ms B complained specifically about her waste bins not being returned to the agreed location of her assisted collection. She said this usually resulted in the bins being placed, either by crew members or neighbours, at the end of her wheelchair access ramp, blocking her access to and from her home. Ms B said she was concerned she would not be able to safely leave her home in case of fire if the bins blocked her path.
39. I have seen evidence that between mid-October and the end of December 2019, Ms B reported five occasions when her bin had not been returned to the agreed location. In November, Ms B also reported five occasions when her bin collections had been missed.
40. The Council did not respond to Ms B’s complaints from November and December 2019 until March 2020 when it provided its final response. This delay is fault. It caused Ms B uncertainty and understandable distress after she had gone to much time and trouble complaining to the Council and repeatedly separately reporting issues with her service to Contractors X.
41. In its final complaint response from March 2020, the Council apologised for its failure to respond sooner. It also apologised for the frustration and inconvenience caused by disruptions to her service.
42. However, the Council’s final complaint response did not fully respond to Ms B’s complaints from November and December 2019. This is fault. It failed to specifically respond to Ms B’s complaint about failures to return her bins and the impact this was having on her as a disabled person. This fault has caused Ms B significant distress and frustration. The inconvenience caused to her is particularly high as she should receive an assisted service that ensures her bins are returned to the agreed location. This is so she can comfortably place her waste in the bins and safely use her access ramp. I do not find the Council’s apology sufficiently remedies the injustice Ms B has suffered.
43. Between March and end of June 2020, Ms B reported a further two missed bin collections and three occasions when her bin was not returned. Based on the logs of Ms B’s service requests that the Council provided, I have seen evidence Contractors X returned within one or two days to collect the missed bins. However, it is not clear if or when Contractors X returned to resolve the three occasions Ms B’s bins were not returned.
44. In May, Ms B complained twice to the Council about her assisted collection service, including failures to return her bins to the agreed location. She said her neighbours’ collections had not been similarly affected. Ms B asked to speak with a member of the waste management team and for her assisted collection to be monitored due to the ongoing issues.
45. In June, Ms B complained again to the Council about failures to return her bins to the agreed location. She said she felt this ongoing issue amounted to racial and disability discrimination. Ms B said that her neighbours’ bins were being returned without any issues, but she was experiencing problems even though she received an assisted collection. She asked again to speak with a senior member of staff and to be told what solution could be provided to the ongoing problems.
46. I have considered the Council’s response to Ms B’s three subsequent complaints from May and June 2020 as well as the Council’s response to the questions I raised. These have been considered alongside Contractor X’s monitoring sheets of Ms B’s assisted service, which cover the period from end of May to October 2020. Based on this evidence, I have found the following:

• Ms B’s complaint in June raised the point she is one of the few disabled Black people receiving an assisted service in her area. It would have been good practice if the Council’s response had directly addressed this particularly serious element of Ms B’s complaint. I am, however, satisfied with the more detailed response the Council has provided me with on this aspect of Ms B’s complaint following further questions I raised. A copy of the Council’s response has been shared with Ms B;
• in the Council’s response from June, it provided Ms B with a single point of contact for reporting issues. This, combined with the monitoring of her service between May and October 2020, has achieved outcomes that Ms B has said led to improvements in her service. I am satisfied this has resolved a number of the main issues Ms B was experiencing. However, I find the Council at fault for failing to establish the single of point of contact and consistently monitoring her service sooner. If the Council had done so, it is likely that much of the frustration and uncertainty Ms B had experienced could have been avoided;
• I appreciate the Council’s changes to all its collection rounds in October 2019 could account for some of the problems Ms B has experienced. However, Ms B complained about her service well before the rounds changed. In response to questions I raised, the Council confirmed it conducted an assisted collection review in February 2020. The Council found Contractors X’s data on this service was out of date and had not been reviewed for a number of years. The Council said Contractors X had responsibility for managing this process. This is fault; and,
• Following this review, the Council said, by July 2020, crew members had an accurate list of residents who required assisted collections and it has seen noticeable improvements to this service since. On balance, it is likely Ms B’s assisted service was affected by the Council’s inaccurate record keeping and this contributed to the poor service she received since March 2019. I do not find the Council had due regard to its duties towards Ms B as a disabled person during the time it failed to ensure Contractors X maintained accurate records. The Council should have ensured Contractors X were providing a properly functioning assisted collections service to her and other similarly affected residents.

The Council’s accommodation and handling of Ms B’s autism-related needs

47. Ms B says the Council has failed to sensitively and appropriately accommodate her autism-related needs to ensure she can fully access its services (part b of the complaint).
48. In response to questions I raised about this aspect of Ms B’s complaint, the Council said it and Contractors X do not have a written policy on handling service disruption reports where the service user has requested reasonable adjustments. It said any requests made for reasonable adjustments are assessed on a case-by-case basis by Contractors X’s management once a service user makes them aware of their needs and adjustments they require. Contractors X considers the following Council policies when making any decision about reasonable adjustments:

• Equality and Diversity in Service Delivery Policy Statement;
• Customer Complaints Procedure;
• Environmental Services Customer Care and Customer Complaints Policy; and,
• the Partnership Agreement between the Council and Contractors X.

49. I have considered the Council’s response and these four policy documents. I find the Council at fault for failing to include clear guidance to staff, including those at Contractors X, on how and when to make reasonable adjustments for service users reporting waste service disruptions and making complaints about this service. I would expect to see guidance that, for examples, signals that certain disabilities may require communication-related adjustments.
50. The Ombudsman’s guidance on ‘Effective Complaint Handling for local authorities’ states: “Making a complaint should be simple, accessible, clear and straightforward.” The guidance goes on to say to provide a complaints handling service that is customer focused, councils should consider whether they need to make any reasonable adjustments for the complainant.
51. I appreciate the Council said Ms B did not communicate her specific autism-related needs until she complained to the Council in June 2020. However, I have not seen any evidence to suggest the Council or Contractors X had a procedure in place to routinely and actively assess whether Ms B or any other service user required any reasonable adjustments when complaining or making service requests about waste services. This caused Ms B frustration and uncertainty as it was not clear how or whether her communication needs could be accommodated. On balance, it is likely Ms B’s communication needs would have been accommodated sooner if such a procedure had been in place.
52. The Council has now reviewed its service requests and complaints handling services as they apply to its waste collections service. It has identified that its generic complaints service was not working for everyone. The Council has decided to provide such individuals with a direct contact. It explained Ms B was provided with a direct contact to report any further complaints or issues with her assisted service. The Council confirmed this direct contact was provided to accommodate Ms B’s autism-related needs as a reasonable adjustment.

The Council’s handling of the complaints Ms B made by phone

53. Ms B complains the Council has failed to handle properly the formal complaints she has made by phone. Instead, she says the Council has treated them as service requests despite Ms B saying she wishes to make a formal complaint (part c of the complaint).
54. As explained in paragraphs 47 to 52 above, I have found that the Council failed to properly respond to Ms B’s complaints and resolve the issues raised through service requests about missed collections and failures to return her missed bins. I, therefore, also uphold part c of Ms B’s complaint. I have seen evidence that shows, between March 2019 and June 2020, Ms B was put to significant time and trouble making numerous calls to Contractors X reporting issues about her assisted service. She made repeated separate complaints about the service to the Council too.

Agreed action

55. I am satisfied the provision by the Council of a direct, single point of contact to Ms B and a period of consistent monitoring has largely remedied the issues with Ms B’s service and the ongoing injustice she has experienced.
56. However, I do not find the Council has fully remedied the injustice Ms B has experienced. Within four weeks of my decision, therefore, the Council has agreed to:
1. apologise to Ms B for failing to provide a sustainable solution to the issues with her service and for failing to make reasonable adjustments for Ms B’s autism-related needs in a timely manner;
2. make a payment to Ms B of £400 in acknowledgment of the avoidable distress, uncertainty and frustration caused by the disruptions to her service. I have considered the Ombudsman’s published guidance on remedies. This usually recommends a payment of between £100 and £300 for such injustice. However, I have recommended a slightly higher payment to acknowledge the prolonged avoidable distress Ms B has experienced and the particular difficulties caused to her, as a wheelchair user, when her bins were not returned properly; and,
3. make a payment to Ms B of £200 for the time and trouble she was put to complaining and reporting service issues. When recommending this payment, I have factored in the amount of time it took for the Council to review its assisted collections service and provide Ms B with a direct contact to accommodate her autism-related needs. This recommend payment is in line with the Ombudsman’s published guidance on remedies.
57. I am satisfied with the service improvements the Council has made since its review of its assisted collections service between February and July 2020. These include:
1. providing crew members with an accurate record of residents receiving an assisted collection service;
2. introducing checks each day where the supervisor and crew members confirm they have reviewed their assisted collection list and collected bins;
3. the implementation of a four-week monitoring period where service issues are reported across its waste collection services. The Council’s waste management team can extend this period to ensure the problems are fully resolved; and,
4. where needed, residents may be provided with a direct point of contact.
58. However, within three months of my final decision, the Council has also agreed to make the following service improvements:
1. review its complaints handling policy to ensure staff consider whether they need to make any reasonable adjustments for the complainant. This should include, for example, asking the complainant if the Council needs to make any adjustments in the way it communicates with them to ensure the complainant can fully access its service;
2. review its procedure on handling of reports of waste collection issues to provide a means for individuals to communicate any requests for reasonable adjustments in how the Council and Contractors X communicates with them. These reasonable adjustments connected with communication needs may, for example, be distinct from a service user’s mobility needs that are accommodated through the provision of an assisted collection service; and
3. share this decision with relevant staff members, including at Contractors X.
59. The Ombudsman will need to see evidence that these actions have been completed.

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Final decision

60. I have completed my investigation. I uphold Ms B’s complaint as there is fault causing her injustice. The Council has agreed to my above recommendations as suitable ways to remedy the injustice Ms B has suffered.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman