Leicester City Council
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 118 complaints. Of these, 28 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 67 complaints. We investigated 23 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 23 complaints and upheld 17.
74% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 80% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for Leicester City Council's population, this is 4.5 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 1 out of 17 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
6% satisfactory remedy rate.
This compares to an average of 10% in similar authorities.
-
Compliance with Ombudsman recommendations
We recorded compliance outcomes in 15 cases.
In 15 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 Leicester 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.
Leicester City Council refuses to pay Ombudsman remedy to domestic abuse victim following complaint
Leicester City Council has refused part of the Ombudsman’s recommendation to pay a homeless woman for not giving her the right support when she asked it for help.
Be clear about visits to home-schooled children says Ombudsman
Councils must be clear with parents of home-schooled children whether home visits are routine or triggered by specific concerns, 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: 24 010 652
Category: Other Categories
Sub Category: Commercial and contracts
- Review its processes to ensure there are no ongoing delays to issuing accurate invoices.
- Review its payment collection processes and consider explicitly attributing specific invoice numbers to collected sums to facilitate accurate reconciliation and accounting.
Case reference: 24 000 164
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Residential care
- The Council should remind relevant staff by way of a staff circular, team meeting or other suitable method, about the following:a) the importance of involving an advocate as early as possible when there are safeguarding issues about a person who lacks capacity and has no one appropriate to help them; andb) the importance of communicating decisions about safeguarding.
Case reference: 24 005 252
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will remind its SEND staff of the Council’s duty to provide all the special educational needs provision set out in a child, or young persons, Education, Health, and Care plans without delay. This includes circumstances where it has delegated or commissioned this to be delivered by other professionals.
Case reference: 24 003 956
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- Within 8 weeks of my decision, the Council has agreed to:d) Identify learning from this complaint to ensure that a contingency plan is in place for unforeseen staff absences.
Case reference: 24 000 037
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will review its protocol or internal guidance for transferring EHC Plans when a child moves out of its area to make sure this is clear and complies with the SEN Regulations. It should then share the protocol with staff, or if it decides that a separate protocol is not needed remind staff that the SEN Regulations has a strict timeframe for this.
- Share the final decision statement with relevant staff.
Case reference: 23 019 872
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Allocations
- The Council agreed to share our decision with relevant staff members and remind them that if there are likely delays in the review process the Council can ask the complainant for an extension which must be done before the original due date of the review and must be done in writing.
Case reference: 23 016 591
Category: Education
Sub Category: School transport
- The Council will remind officers of the requirements set out in statutory guidance and its own transport policy, concerning how it must conduct both stages of the transport appeals procedure.
Case reference: 23 016 288
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Allocations
- The Council agrees to issue a reminder to relevant Housing Team staff to ensure they clearly explain the reasons for decisions about housing register applications so applicants can challenge these decisions if necessary.
Case reference: 23 014 962
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Charging
- The Council should remind staff of the importance of carrying out safeguarding enquiries when care home residents are at risk of harm.
Case reference: 23 014 835
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council agreed to review its procedures for monitoring Education Health and Care (EHC) needs assessments and preparing EHC plans to ensure it complies with the required legal timescales.
Last updated: 4 April 2015