Bury Metropolitan Borough Council (24 000 867)

Statement Upheld Special educational needs 24-Apr-2025

Summary: Miss X complained that the Council failed to provide education to her son while he was out of school. We have found that the Council was at fault, because it failed to deliver home tuition to Miss X’s son for at least part of 2023. This meant he lost education, and he and Miss X likely suffered distress. The Council has agreed to make symbolic payments to recognise their injustice, and it will take steps to improve its service.

Bury Metropolitan Borough Council (24 010 094)

Statement Upheld Refuse and recycling 30-Apr-2025

Summary: Mr X complained the Council’s waste collections are unreliable, there is poor communication between departments, and it ignored his freedom of information request. Mr X said he had to go to the tip because his waste was not collected. He said it caused stress and anxiety, and there are now issues with rats and fruit flies. We find the Council at fault and this caused injustice. The Council will apologise and make a payment to Mr X.

Bury Metropolitan Borough Council (24 015 844)

Statement Upheld Alternative provision 18-Jun-2025

Summary: Ms X complained the Council failed to provide her child with suitable fulltime education and special educational provision, and complained about faults in reviewing the Education, Health and Care Plan. There was fault causing injustice. Ms X’s child missed out on education and Ms X and her child suffered distress and inconvenience. The Council has agreed to apologise, improve communication with Ms X about next steps, make symbolic payments and carry out service improvements. The complaint is upheld.

Bury Metropolitan Borough Council (24 000 950)

Statement Upheld Child protection 07-Jul-2025

Summary: Miss X complained about the way the Council dealt with her son’s care. The Council was at fault for delaying in completing the statutory complaint procedure and failing to provide a suitable remedy for the faults identified through the statutory complaint procedure. This caused Miss X distress and frustration. The Council will apologise, make a payment and send us evidence of completed service improvements.

Bury Metropolitan Borough Council (24 016 941)

Statement Upheld Refuse and recycling 05-Aug-2025

Summary: Mr B complained the Council has repeatedly left his bins blocking access to his driveway after collections, despite assuring him this would be resolved. The Council was at fault. It continued to leave Mr B’s bins blocking his driveway, after agreeing to leave them elsewhere. It also demonstrated poor record-keeping by not evidencing how and when it monitored his collections and carried out site visits. Because of the fault, Mr B could not safely access his driveway on several occasions; he suffered frustration and uncertainty; and it meant he continued to contact the Council to report the issue. The Council will issue a staff briefing and review its collection monitoring procedures.

Bury Metropolitan Borough Council (24 006 385)

Statement Upheld Special educational needs 06-Aug-2025

Summary: Ms X complains the Council failed to provide educational provision to her child, as outlined in his Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan. The Council is at fault for failing to arrange a suitable education when the school said it was unable to meet the child’s needs and the Council has failed to follow statutory timeframes when finalising the child’s EHC Plan following a reassessment of needs. The Council has also failed to provide Ms X a backdated personal budget. The Council has agreed to provide a suitable remedy for the injustice caused.

Bury Metropolitan Borough Council (24 019 017)

Statement Upheld Special educational needs 07-Aug-2025

Summary: Mrs X complained about the Council’s handling of her child Y’s Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan since 2023 including annual review delays and a failure to pay the personal budget. The Council was at fault. It failed to carry out annual reviews between August 2023 and July 2024 and then delayed issuing an amended Plan prior to Y’s transition to post-16 education. It also failed to review and pay Y’s personal budget which meant Mrs X was unable to arrange therapy provision between September 2023 and July 2024. The Council agreed to apologise to Mrs X and Y and make payments to acknowledge the distress caused the impact on Y’s education and development.

Bury Metropolitan Borough Council (24 022 770)

Statement Upheld Refuse and recycling 24-Sep-2025

Summary: Mr X complained about how the Council handled his waste collections. He stated on several occasions the Council failed to collect his bins, did not fully empty them, and did not return them to his property. The Council was at fault for several missed collections and for not fully emptying Mr X’s bins. It apologised to Mr X for the lack of service. We found the apology suitable to remedy Mr X’s injustice. The Council agreed to carry out further monitoring for two months to ensure Mr X’s bins are fully emptied.

Bury Metropolitan Borough Council (24 015 252)

Statement Upheld Other 08-Oct-2025

Summary: Mr X complained the Council has not met its legal duties to support his Special Guardianship Order. He says this has impacted the emotional wellbeing of his family. We find the Council at fault which caused injustice. The Council will apologise and make a payment to Mr X. The Council will also make a fresh decision.

Bury Metropolitan Borough Council (24 021 752)

Statement Upheld Special educational needs 16-Oct-2025

Summary: Miss X complained about a failure to put alternative provision in place for her child, Y, between 2024 and 2025, delayed annual reviews and a failure to update Y’s Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan. The Council failed to provide adequate oversight of Y’s provision between January and July 2024 and then failed to put any education in place for Y between September 2024 and January 2025 when they were not on roll at any school. It also delayed amending Y’s EHC Plan by five months following an annual review. The Council agreed to apologise and make payments to acknowledge the injustice this caused. It also agreed to provide us with updates of action it is taking to improve services under its SEND improvement plan.