Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 56 complaints. Of these, 28 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 15 complaints. We investigated 13 complaints.
More about this data
Complaints dealt with – the total number of complaints and enquiries considered. It is not appropriate to investigate all of them.
Not for us – includes complaints brought to us before the council was given chance to consider it, or the complainant came to the wrong Ombudsman.
Assessed and closed – includes complaints where the law says we’re not allowed to investigate, or it would be a poor use of public funds if we did.
Investigated – we completed an investigation and made a decision on whether we found fault, or no fault.
Complaints upheld – we completed an investigation and found evidence of fault, or the organisation provided a suitable remedy early on.
Satisfactory remedies provided by the Council – the council upheld the complaint and we agreed with how it offered to put things right.
Compliance with Ombudsman recommendations – not complying with our recommendations is rare. A council with a compliance rate below 100% should scrutinise the complaints where it failed to comply and identify any learning.
Average performance rates – we compare the annual statistics of similar types of councils to work out an average level of performance. We do this for County Councils, District Councils, Metropolitan Boroughs, Unitary Councils, and London Boroughs.
For more information on understanding our statistics see Interpreting our complaints data.
Complaints dealt with
Not for us
Assessed and closed
Investigated
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Complaints upheld
We investigated 13 complaints and upheld 9.
69% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 81% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council's population, this is 3.6 upheld decisions per 100,000 residents.
The average for authorities of this type is
4.7 upheld decisions per 100,000 residents. -
Satisfactory remedies provided by the Council
In 1 out of 9 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
11% satisfactory remedy rate.
This compares to an average of 13% in similar authorities.
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Compliance with Ombudsman recommendations
We recorded compliance outcomes in 8 cases.
In 8 cases we were satisfied with the actions taken.100% compliance rate with recommendations.
This compares to an average of 100% in similar authorities.
Annual letters
We write to councils each year to give a summary of the complaint statistics we record about them,
and their performance in responding to our investigations.
Reports
The Ombudsman has published the following reports against Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council
Find out more about reports
We issue reports on certain investigations, particularly where there is a wider public interest to do so. Common reasons for reports are significant injustice, systemic issues, major learning points and non-compliance with our recommendations. Issuing reports is one way we help to ensure councils are accountable to local people and highlighting the learning from complaints helps to improve services for everybody. Reports are published for 10 years.
Clear information and fair processes essential in Schools Admissions Appeals
Parents must be given clear information about their rights to present their case to Schools Admissions Appeal Panels, and panels must take their individual circumstances into account, the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) says.
Service improvements
The Council has agreed to make the following improvements to its services following an Ombudsman investigation.
Find out more about service improvements
When we find fault, we can recommend improvements to systems and processes where they haven’t worked properly, so that others do not suffer from these same problems in future. Common examples are policy changes; procedural reviews; and staff training. Service improvements from decisions are published for 5 years and those from reports are published for 10 years.
The latest 10 cases are listed below – click ‘view all’ to find all service improvements.
Case reference: 24 012 755
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The council will complete a review of its handling of this complaint to ensure all opportunities to learn are identified.
Case reference: 24 001 402
Category: Education
Sub Category: Alternative provision
- In writing, remind staff of the importance of ensuring that all provision in Section F of Education, Health and Care Plans should be implemented.
Case reference: 23 019 997
Category: Education
Sub Category: Alternative provision
- Provide guidance to staff about recording and responding to complaints according to its complaints process.
Case reference: 23 004 539
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will provide details of how it has changed its processes and updated staff to ensure it responds appropriately to consultations from other local authorities about proposals to name schools it maintains, and particularly those with 'integrated resources', in Education, Health and Care Plans.
Case reference: 23 004 534
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- Share a copy of this decision with staff in the relevant department to consider the lessons that can be learned from this case.
- Provide an action plan showing how the Council will meet the statutory annual review timescales when dealing with any EHC Plan annual reviews in future.
- Refer this decision, the action plan and the lessons learned outcomes to the relevant Cabinet Member and Scrutiny Committee.
Case reference: 23 009 022
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Charging
- The Council will complete a review of the financial contribution policy.
- The Council will finalise the financial contribution policy changes.
Case reference: 23 002 683
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Looked after children
- •Remind relevant staff of the importance of accurately recording meetings.
- •Remind relevant staff of the importance of completing all action from complaints in a reasonable timescale.
Case reference: 22 014 428
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Other
- The Council will complete its review of the adequacy of information provided to parents around parent carers needs assessments. It will create an action plan of how it intends to resolve the gaps in information the review has identified.
Case reference: 22 013 964
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will share our decision with staff dealing with SEN and exclusions and remind them to follow the statutory guidance for alternative provision.
- The Council will write to us setting out a clear plan and timetable explaining how it intends to implement tighter monitoring of SEN provision for individual pupils.
Case reference: 22 013 426
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will implement a system of monitoring Annual Reviews timescales to ensure:a) The Council sends its decision letters four weeks after the Annual Review meeting with the proposed amendments, if at all possible;b) If the child’s/young person’s EHC plan is to be amended following anAnnual Review, the final amended plan will be sent to the parents eight weeks after sending the proposed amendments.
- The Council will prepare a plan for dealing with children's statutory complaints to ensure the Council meets its statutory timescales.
Last updated: 4 April 2015