Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of a call Mrs X made to the Council’s housing needs service out of hours and delay assessing her homelessness. The Council has already accepted fault and offered an appropriate remedy for delay assessing homelessness and responding to the complaint. It is unlikely investigation into the handling of the call would achieve anything further.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complained that an officer was rude and dismissive when she called the Council’s housing needs service out of hours. She also complained that the Council took too long to assess her homelessness and delayed responding to her complaint.
2. Mrs X wants the Council to explain its actions and consider whether the managers involved should continue to handle her homelessness application.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide:

• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Mrs X filled in an online form to ask the Council for help with housing in October 2024. She received an automated email which said the Council would contact her within five working days. The Council did not contact her until mid-November.
7. Mrs X called the Council’s out of hours duty team. She says the officer who called her back was rude and dismissive and did not act to progress her homeless application.
8. In response to Mrs X’s complaint, the Council:
• Apologised for her experience of the phone call
• Said it was reviewing its out of hours service and that this would include training for its staff on customer service
• Agreed that it should consider recording such calls and said it would explore doing so
• Apologised for the 25-day delay between receiving Mrs X’s homelessness application and an officer making contact with her and offered £250 as a remedy for the injustice caused
• Apologised for its delay responding to her complaint at stage one at offered £240 as a remedy for the injustice caused.
9. We will not investigate this complaint. The Council has accepted fault and offered a suitable remedy for most of the complaint. Mrs X’s call with the Council’s out of hours service was not recorded. It is unlikely an investigation would be able to make findings about what happened in the call or achieve anything further.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because the Council has already accepted fault, offered a suitable remedy and identified appropriate service improvements. It is unlikely further investigation would lead to a different outcome or achieve anything further.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman