City of Wolverhampton Council
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 54 complaints. Of these, 24 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 22 complaints. We investigated 8 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 8 complaints and upheld 7.
88% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 81% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for City of Wolverhampton Council's population, this is 2.6 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 2 out of 7 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
29% 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 6 cases.
In 6 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 City of Wolverhampton 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.
City of Wolverhampton Council to improve its adoption recruitment process
Wolverhampton council has agreed to ensure its adoption recruitment procedure adheres to statutory guidance, following an Ombudsman investigation.
Ombudsman reminds councils of their foster carer school transport duties
Councils across England are being reminded about the financial support they must provide to foster carers’ school transport expenses following an investigation by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman into Wolverhampton council.
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: 23 021 448
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council has agreed to provide the Ombudsman with an action plan specifically around how the Council intends to reduce annual review backlogs and a further update, two months after it has provided the action plan, on its progress with the backlog.
Case reference: 23 021 423
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- The Council should review its process when it receives notification that a property is unsuitable, and ensure all relevant staff are reminded of the Council’s duty to carry out a suitability review.
Case reference: 23 016 340
Category: Environment and regulation
Sub Category: Licensing
- The Council will remind its vehicle licensing officers of each applicant's right to appeal a refusal to issue or renew a private vehicle licence, and ensure that officers know this appeal right should be explained to applicants when refusing a licence.
Case reference: 23 004 866
Category: Transport and highways
Sub Category: Rights of way
- a)Take steps to introduce a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) in relation to a public footpath if its locked gates are to remain in place.b)Review other PSPOs which replaced previous gating orders and expired in October 2020 to determine if they need to be re-made.
Case reference: 23 001 270
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Assessment and care plan
- Review its record keeping procedures to ensure officers record all key decisions relating to a person’s care needs, such as whether a person has eligible needs under the Care Act 2014 and notify the client of the decision.
- By training or other means remind officers to provide key information about care home funding in writing following conversations with clients regarding funding arrangements. This is to ensure understanding of the key issues discussed and potential financial implications.
Case reference: 22 013 940
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- By training or other means remind staff of the importance of adhering to the Council’s complaint procedure / timescales.
- Produce an action plan to demonstrate how the Council will meet statutory timescales for EHC needs assessments and EHC Plans.
Case reference: 22 006 023
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Residential care
- The Council agreed to remind the care provider about the importance of raising safeguarding alerts immediately and keeping a record of safeguarding referrals.
Case reference: 22 002 239
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council agreed to review how it monitors and arranges social care assessments for disabled children to ensure it completes these in a reasonable period of time.
Case reference: 22 001 797
Category: Benefits and tax
Sub Category: Housing benefit and council tax benefit
- The Council will remind its staff they must pass housing benefit appeals to the Tribunal without undue delay; usually within four weeks. They should do this regardless of whether the Council's case is prepared.
Case reference: 21 010 968
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council should ensure relevant staff are aware of their responsibilities when sending Education, Health and Care advice requests. Specifically, requests to NHS organisations should specifically set out what advice is needed.
- The Council should ensure it clarifies what role meetings have in its 'Complaints Policy and Procedures'.
- The Council should ensure it explains what the local arrangement for joint complaint handling is with NHS organisations in its 'Complaints Policy and Procedures'.
Last updated: 4 April 2015