Who we are and what we do

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) and the Housing Ombudsman Service (HOS) have investigators and adjudicators who specialise in considering complaints for both Ombudsmen.

The LGSCO investigates complaints about most council services. The HOS investigates complaints and resolves disputes involving the tenants and leaseholders of social landlords (including councils).

Each Ombudsman will work on its own to investigate complaints it can look at. However, we may decide to work together, sharing information to look at both council and landlord housing services where the complaint is about issues so closely linked that we need to investigate both services at the same time.

The LGSCO and HOS mostly work in the same way to investigate complaints. But when we decide to work together this may mean we use a different approach.

When complaints are ready for us

Councils are expected to have complaints processes that comply with the LGSCO and HOS Complaint Handling Codes. You can view each Ombudsman Code here:

• Complaint Handling Code - Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman and
• The Complaint Handling Code | Housing Ombudsman Service (housing-ombudsman.org.uk).

Complaints usually need to have completed both the council and landlord complaint processes for us to be able to start a joint investigation.

Joint Investigations

We are allowed, by law, to work together to investigate certain types of complaint. We can share information to look at what you have already complained about, what is new, which ombudsman can look at your complaint and whether it makes sense for us to work together. If we decide to work together, we will ask you for permission to investigate the complaint jointly. If you do not give us permission, then we cannot work together.

How we investigate jointly

The LGSCO investigator and the HOS adjudicator will work together and decide which of them will be your main point of contact and take the lead in corresponding on joint issues. They will also decide on who will consider which parts of the complaint and ask for information from the complainant, council and landlord as part of the joint investigation.

We do not take sides – we look fairly at what happened, carefully consider the evidence, and make decisions based on what was reasonable in the circumstances of the case.

You can view more information on how each Ombudsman investigates complaints here: How we work - Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman and Investigation Guidance (housing-ombudsman.org.uk).

If you think you may need extra help when using our service, please let us know. There is more information here on reasonable adjustments that both Ombudsmen are able to make: LGSCO policy on reasonable adjustments (lgo.org.uk) and Reasonable adjustments policy - Housing Ombudsman (housing-ombudsman.org.uk).

Our joint decisions

We publish all our decisions on our websites. You can see examples of decisions on joint working complaints here: Decisions - Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman and Decisions Archive - Housing Ombudsman (housing-ombudsman.org.uk). All decision statements are published unless there are specific reasons why we should not publish, for example, a risk of breach of anonymity. We name the organisations involved, but not individuals.

Remedy Action

When we find something has gone wrong, the council or landlord may need to apologise, take an action to put things right, or improve its future services. The council or landlord may also need to make a financial payment to try to put things right.

To decide how much they should pay, we use our Remedies Guidance: Guidance on remedies - Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman and Guidance on remedies (housing-ombudsman.org.uk).

We will separate the remedy actions for each organisation. The LGSCO will make recommendations whereas the HOS make both recommendations and orders. Each organisation will follow its own remedy compliance process, monitor implementation and confirm to the council and landlord when they are satisfied the actions are complete. In cases where any joint recommendations are made, both organisations will liaise together to agree joint compliance.

Reviews

If a complainant, council or landlord disagrees with our decision, they can submit a review request. There is more information on the LGSCO and HOS review processes here:

• Challenging our decisions - Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman and
• Policy and guidance on reviews of determinations - Housing Ombudsman (housing-ombudsman.org.uk).

We will consider the reason for the review request and decide whether the review is of a decision made by one Ombudsman or both. You will need to provide new evidence or show that the original decision relied upon inaccurate evidence.

Confidentiality and data protection

We will usually share written responses to our enquiries with the complainant. However, complainants can also make subject access requests for complaint file material. We follow the Information Commissioner’s guidance that material on complaint files constitutes the complainant’s personal data so any material sent to us is usually disclosable under data protection rules unless one of the exemptions apply. We do not usually share any information about a third party or which is confidential for another reason.

November 2025