Leeds City Council
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 227 complaints. Of these, 63 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 96 complaints. We investigated 68 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 68 complaints and upheld 62.
91% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 81% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for Leeds City Council's population, this is 7.5 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 6 out of 62 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
10% 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 54 cases.
In 54 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 Leeds City 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.
Ombudsman investigation uncovers significant delays in Yorkshire council’s EHC Plan process
Leeds City Council has been criticised for significant delays in making decisions about support for children with special educational needs. An investigation by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman found delays by the Council in nearly eight out of 10 Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plans even after specialist advice had been obtained.
Councils cannot allow multiple care home contracts to run in tandem
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman is cautioning councils against allowing the care homes they work with to have subsidiary contracts with clients following a complaint about Leeds City Council.
Council to look again at summer-born children’s school start date requests
Leeds City Council failed to follow guidance on summer-born admissions when deciding when an August-born girl could start school, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has found.
Distressed Leeds girl left without proper education for months
Leeds City Council left a young girl without proper education for nine months after she started refusing to go to her primary school because of anxiety, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman 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: 24 022 279
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council agreed to remind relevant officers of the need to consider whether the section 19 duty is triggered for children who are not attending school full time and are struggling with attendance.
- The Council agreed to ensure it has processes in place to monitor and review the progress of children who are not attending school, or are on part-time timetables, especially where it decides to proceed with an Education, Health and Care needs assessment.
Case reference: 24 017 715
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- Review its procedures to ensure that annual reviews of current EHC Plans are carried out within the timescales set out in the law.
Case reference: 24 017 661
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Other
- The Council agreed that it would review how it can strengthen its response where one of its users of care services experiences distress as a result of the actions of another. It agreed that review would consider making recommendations for improving its policy, procedures or the awareness of relevant employees. The review would cover:a) considering if the Council used its powers to safeguard adults from abuse sufficiently in such cases; b) whether it sufficiently considered such cases through the perspective of the victim of any disruptive or aggressive behaviour; c) whether it could do more to encourage social workers to draw up action plans to tackle problem behaviour and monitor their effectiveness;d) considering, where applicable, if it should use its power to end licence agreements in cases where a user of services in supported living accommodation it provides breaches a ‘good behaviour’ clause in its licence.
Case reference: 24 015 606
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Assessment and care plan
- •Remind the relevant officers that any policies, guidance or eligibility criteria the Council applies, should be in writing and not verbal only.
Case reference: 24 014 118
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Transport
- The Council will remind relevant staff to ensure clear and consistent communication is provided to blue badge applicants regarding delays, when appeal rights can be exercised, and next steps in the assessment process.
Case reference: 24 013 895
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- The Council has agreed to remind officers the duty to provide interim accommodation arises as soon as it has reason to believe an applicant may be eligible for assistance, homeless and in priority need;
- The Council has agreed to ensure officers always carry out a suitability assessment to identify the applicant and their household’s needs before making a placement in interim or temporary accommodation
- The Council has agreed to remind officers of the need to make and retain records of contact with applicants about offers of interim accommodation and their response
- The Council has agreed to review its policy and/or training to officers about its duty to securesuitable interim accommodation in accordance with Chapters 15, 16 and 17 of theHomelessness Code of Guidance for Local Authorities.
Case reference: 24 012 017
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council agreed to decide what changes are needed to its Education, Health, and Care (EHC) Plan processes, or staff training, to ensure it has systems in place to:check special educational needs provision is in place when it issues a new or substantially different EHC Plan, or there is a change in educational setting; andproperly investigate complaints or concerns that provision is not in place at any time.
Case reference: 24 006 945
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council has agreed to send written reminders to relevant staff of the Council’s responsibilities under Section 19 of the Education Act. With these reminders, it should share a copy of our “Out of school, out of sight? focus report, highlighting key points to ensure officers are aware of the factors they should consider when aware a child is not accessing full time education.
Case reference: 24 000 225
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Looked after children
- the Council will consider introducing an alternative education policy to help officers make decisions about when alternative education should be provided;
- ensure its special educational needs officers are aware that it has the power, in certain circumstances, to direct certain schools to admit a pupil with an Education, Health and Care plan;
- ensure it meets the special educational needs of pupils with an Education, Health and Care plan, who are out of school, and monitors their progress;
- ensure its officers check the suitability of the education for electively educated pupils;
- ensure adoptive parents or carers who take on the responsibility of previously looked after children are aware of the Virtual School Head, and how they can contact for advice and information on school matters.
Case reference: 24 010 616
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- The Council has agreed to provide relevant officers with training on chapters 6 and 18 of the Homelessness Code of Guidance. This guidance sets out how authorities should consider whether it is reasonable for an individual to continue to occupy their existing accommodation. This guidance also sets out the need to issue written decisions about an applicant's homelessness, explaining the reasons for adverse decisions.
Last updated: 4 April 2015