Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 35 complaints. Of these, 12 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 19 complaints. We investigated 4 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 4 complaints and upheld 4.
100% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 81% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council's population, this is 2.5% 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 0 out of 4 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 13% in similar authorities.
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Compliance with Ombudsman recommendations
We recorded compliance outcomes in 4 cases.
In 4 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 Knowsley 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.
Care should be based on assessed need says LGO
Councils are being asked to ensure that their care provision is determined by an individual assessment of needs, even in times of financial pressure.
Knowsley council did not review vulnerable man’s situation properly
For more than two years, Knowsley MBC did not follow proper planning, review and assessment processes for a young man living in supported accommodation, a Local Government Ombudsman investigation has found.
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: 23 008 737
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Assessment and care plan
- The Council will remind relevant staff to ensure that where carers are providing a significant amount of care, they should be involved in the needs assessment process and offered a carers assessment.
- The Council will take action to ensure the Council commissioned care home reviews it practice to ensure it has properly considered an individual’s needs as set out in any support plan provided by the Council, as part of the admission and assessment process.
Case reference: 23 005 717
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Charging
- The Council has agreed to identify the actions it is going to take to ensure it improves the way it deals with DRE in future.
Case reference: 22 017 318
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Assessment and care plan
- The Council will remind staff to clearly explain in its decision letters its reasons for refusing disability related expenditure requests.
Case reference: 22 014 796
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Looked after children
- The Council has agreed to remind relevant staff of the statutory timeframes for investigating children's services complaints.
- The Council has agreed to improve its processes for monitoring compliance with remedies arising from its complaint investigations.
Case reference: 22 011 836
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Residential care
- The Council agreed to communicate to all staff who respond to complaints about commissioned care homes that they should obtain information from the care home in order to provide a full response to a complaint.
- The Council agreed to review what it requires of its commissioned care providers about accompanying care home residents to medical appointments and liaising with families about appointments. This is to ensure its requirements are clear. The Council should review how it monitors this issue for the Care Providers that it commissions to provide residential and nursing care.
Case reference: 21 013 145
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- Remind officers of the factors they should consider when deciding whetheralternative educational provision needs to be made. Specifically, that there isnot a requirement for there to be medical reasons for non-attendance before theCouncil will make alternative provision.
Case reference: 21 001 821
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Domiciliary care
- The Council will review the way the occupational therapy and continence services work to ensure improved communication and liaison in future.
Case reference: 20 009 055
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Child protection
- The Council will provide evidence that it has disseminated the learning from this case to social workers and managers.
Case reference: 20 003 378
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Other
- The Council has also agreed to produce and implement a policy on ordinary residence.
Case reference: 19 018 438
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Friends and family carers
- The Council should consider whether its procedures allow social workers to see that goods delivered to families can be returned promptly if they are unsatisfactory. It will advise the Ombudsman what action it will take so what happened in this case can be avoided in the future.
Last updated: 4 April 2015