City of York Council
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 50 complaints. Of these, 16 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 24 complaints. We investigated 10 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
-
Complaints upheld
We investigated 10 complaints and upheld 7.
70% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 80% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for City of York Council's population, this is 3.4% upheld decisions per 100,000 residents.
The average for authorities of this type is
5.3% upheld decisions per 100,000 residents. -
Satisfactory remedies provided by the Council
In 0 out of 7 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
0% satisfactory remedy rate.
This compares to an average of 10% in similar authorities.
-
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 York 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.
Social work failings deny parents time with dying baby, Ombudsman said
The parents of a seriously ill baby were unable to spend quality time with their child in his last few weeks of life, because City of York social workers did not review his case properly, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has said.
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: 23 013 454
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Direct payments
- The Council will remind its Adult Social Care staff of the importance of timely communication with the service users and of taking their individual circumstances into account.
- The Council will review its complaint handling for the Adult Social Care complaints to ensure they are properly recorded and responded to in accordance with the Council's policy.
Case reference: 23 011 019
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Domiciliary care
- Remind the Agency of the importance of good record keeping.
Case reference: 23 011 530
Category: Environment and regulation
Sub Category: Refuse and recycling
- Review the Council’s process for issuing reminders to the waste crews to identify any improvements in how it carries out its assisted collection service
Case reference: 23 007 320
Category: Environment and regulation
Sub Category: Refuse and recycling
- The Council will share the Ombudsman’s guidance on effective complaint handling for local authorities with relevant officers and managers. This will help to ensure complaints are investigated and followed up, where necessary, in a robust manner.
Case reference: 23 001 150
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Friends and family carers
- The Council will remind relevant social workers to manage expectations and to be mindful of how they communicate with carers about financial offers which remain subject to management approval. This could be through a briefing paper, team meeting or part of a training session.
- The Council will remind those involved in statutory children’s complaint investigations, and investigating officers, of the timescales in the statutory guidance. This could be through a briefing paper, team meeting or part of a training session.
Case reference: 22 015 072
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Charging
- The Council will review and amend its policy of not completing Deprivation of Liberty standard authorisations when a person is in hospital.
Case reference: 22 012 570
Category: Planning
Sub Category: Building control
- The Council will remind officers dealing with complaints of the need to ensure the relevant records are checked so complaint responses do not contain inaccurate information.
- The Council will put a procedure in place to ensure building control officers keep clear records of visits and telephone conversations.
Case reference: 22 011 700
Category: Environment and regulation
Sub Category: Refuse and recycling
- The Council has agreed to remind staff of the Councils duty under the Equality Act to ensure that it evidences consideration during decision making where somebody has a protected characteristic.
Case reference: 22 005 428
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Assessment and care plan
- The Council will issue reminders to appropriate staff to ensure they consider carrying out a carers assessment if it appears a carer may have any level of need for support.
- The Council will issue reminders to appropriate staff to ensure guidance and support is given when asked about direct payments and ensure proper consideration is given to these requests.
Case reference: 22 001 187
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Charging
- The Council will review its existing policy to ensure a consistent approach on top up charges. This includes where an individual has been assessed to be able to afford a more expensive care home, has refused the Council’s offer of a care home and agreed to meet such charges in writing. The Council has no duty to source care arrangements for service users who are self-funders of their care.
- The Council will provide training to its staff to ensure timely accurate advice and guidance is provided to residential care users, or their representatives, regarding top up charges. And, where applicable, requests for support with finding suitable care homes are actioned without delay.
Last updated: 4 April 2015