Bury Metropolitan Borough Council
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 89 complaints. Of these, 38 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 37 complaints. We investigated 14 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 14 complaints and upheld 10.
71% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 81% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for Bury Metropolitan Borough Council's population, this is 5.1 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 2 out of 10 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
20% 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 9 cases.
In 9 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 Bury 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.
Councils should remedy without delay – Ombudsman
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has been compelled to highlight two cases where a council has not acted to put things right in good time.
Councils urged to ensure complaints about contractors are handled properly
Councils need to assure themselves that complaints investigations carried out by their contractors are conducted rigorously, the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) is advising.
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: 23 020 511
Category: Planning
Sub Category: Enforcement
- Consider what changes to practice and procedure are necessary to avoid delay in action and the failure to properly investigate planning enforcement complaints and planning enforcement enquiries in the future.
- Review its complaint handling procedure and explain what service improvements it will make to prevent similar occurrences. Any service improvements identified should ensure that complaints made to the Council are processed and responded to in line with its complaint policy.
Case reference: 23 018 631
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Council house sales and leaseholders
- The Council agreed to review why it did not provide an offer within 8 weeks of the Right to Buy application.
- The Council agreed to review why it failed to advise of the right to seek a remedy at court.
- The Council agreed to remind relevant officers of the need to make and retain requests for advice and the advice received from the government Right to Buy Help Team.
Case reference: 23 017 296
Category: Environment and regulation
Sub Category: Antisocial behaviour
- Remind staff to consider reports of alleged anti-social behaviour in line with the Council’s wider anti-social behaviour powers, including the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, not just as part of a review of tenancy agreements
- Remind staff to signpost complainants to the anti-social behaviour case review process.
Case reference: 23 008 274
Category: Education
Sub Category: Alternative provision
- Review its processes for completing EHC Plan reviews and provide guidance and training to staff about the importance of adhering to the review timescales.
- Provide guidance and training to staff about its responsibility to provide education or training to 16 to 18 year olds.
Case reference: 23 004 633
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council agreed to remind relevant staff that while it can require schools to carry out annual review meetings for education health and care plans on its behalf, the Council is still responsible for ensuring that annual reviews are carried out.
- The Council agreed to remind relevant staff that, following an annual review of an education health and care plan, it must send is decision about the review within four weeks, even if it does not propose to make any changes to the plan.
- The Council agreed to review its requirements and guidance for schools which it asks to hold education health and care plan annual review meetings on its behalf. It should ensure that:schools properly consider and record all the relevant issues mentioned in statutory guidance, including preparing children for adulthood;any reports from meetings prepared by schools have sufficient information for the Council to make its decision about the review; andwhere it does not receive reports at the right time or if reports do not contain the required information, it raises this with the school in a timely manner.
- The Council agreed to clarify the information on its website about which of its services are and are not covered by the statutory children's complaints procedure, including complaints about education health and care plans.
Case reference: 23 002 318
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council agreed to share a copy of our decision with relevant staff across its Special Educational Needs (SEN) and Disability service. It will remind staff of the Council’s statutory duty to secure the SEN provision in a child’s Education, Health, and Care plan.
Case reference: 22 015 586
Category: Education
Sub Category: Alternative provision
- The Council will remind relevant officers involved in education monitoring and support of the Council’s duties under law and statutory guidance to consider providing alternative educational provision when a child of statutory school age is out of school for health reasons or otherwise.
Case reference: 22 015 322
Category: Benefits and tax
Sub Category: Other
- The Council has agreed to provide guidance to relevant staff about the circumstances in which people fleeing domestic abuse can apply for assistance from the support fund.
- The Council has agreed to remind staff with responsibility for responding to complaints that complainants should be able to complain in private and that where the complaint concerns sensitive or personal details, such as of domestic abuse, distribution of the complaint and response should usually be kept to a minimum.
Case reference: 22 014 364
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Safeguarding
- The Council will ensure the Care Provider issues a reminder to all staff that family and other representatives must be kept updated and prescriptions should be collected in a timely fashion.
Case reference: 22 013 117
Category: Education
Sub Category: Alternative provision
- The Council will remind staff they can issue final Education, Health and Care plans without parental agreement. This gives the parent the right to appeal to the Special Educational Needs and Disability tribunal to resolve any disagreement over the content of the plan.
- The Council will remind staff they must consider whether it owes a child the duty to arrange alternative provision when they become aware the child is out of education or not attending full-time.
- The Council will review the monitoring arrangements it has in place to assure itself that a) children are receiving appropriate alternative provision when they are not in school full-time and b) children receiving alternative provision who have Education, Health and Care plans are receiving the special educational provision set out in their plans. If the Council identifies any actions it needs to take to improve its practice, it will produce an action plan and send it to the Ombudsman.
Last updated: 4 April 2015