Liverpool City Council
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 165 complaints. Of these, 62 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 74 complaints. We investigated 29 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 29 complaints and upheld 23.
79% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 81% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for Liverpool City Council's population, this is 4.6 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 23 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
9% 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 18 cases.
In 18 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 Liverpool 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.
Liverpool man left street homeless by city council
A Liverpool man, who needed surgery, was left street homeless for six months during the COVID pandemic, despite asking the city council for help.
Liverpool criticised by Ombudsman for failing disabled teenage siblings
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has criticised Liverpool City Council for not ensuring two teenage siblings with significant needs were provided with the support they should have received for 18 months.
A woman was banned from visiting her mother in a Liverpool care home after she complained about her treatment, 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: 24 003 213
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will issue a reminder to its Special Educational Needs and Disability staff to ensure they are aware of the Council's duty to respond to personal budget requests received during the Educational, Health and Care Plan annual review period.
Case reference: 24 010 564
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- Consider if the delay in increasing Mr X’s priority to band A caused him to miss an offer of a property during the period of delay. In doing so, the Council should consider any bids made by Mr X during this period and consider if any would have been successful but for the delay in increasing his priority to band A. If the Council finds Mr X missed an offer it should offer an appropriate remedy.
- By training or other means, remind officers of the low threshold fortriggering the Council’s duty to provide interim accommodation when anapplicant first makes their homelessness application. It should also remindofficers of the provisions of section 21.25 of the Homelessness Code ofGuidance when dealing with applicants who may be fleeing domestic abuse
- By training or other means, remind officers that they should assess thesuitability of interim accommodation offered to applicants to ensure it meetstheir needs and keep brief records of the assessment
- Establish a system for checking whether an applicant has booked intointerim accommodation in order to check whether the booking has been utilisedand to resolve any issues with the booking.
- By training or other means, remind officers that it should seekevidence from an accommodation provider to establish if an eviction wasjustified in the event the Council relies on the eviction when ending itsinterim or temporary accommodation duty.
Case reference: 24 004 187
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will review its commissioning arrangements generally to ensure they can meet current demand for occupational therapy provision.
Case reference: 24 000 784
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will remind the front-line special educational needs staff and their managers of the Council’s absolute duty to ensure delivery of special educational provision included in children’s EHC Plans. The Council should provide us with evidence it has completed this action.
Case reference: 23 019 535
Category: Environment and regulation
Sub Category: Other
- The Council will take action to ensure that relevant staff are aware of their powers to respond to vermin problems originating from private property.
Case reference: 23 018 774
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will review its procedures to ensure amended final Education Health and Care Plans are issued by the 31 March deadline for those young people transferring to post-16 college placements.
Case reference: 23 014 602
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- The Council has agreed to review its policies and procedures in relation to suitability reviews to ensure it is correct and send a reminder to all housing staff that suitability reviews should be carried out regardless of whether the applicant has accepted the accommodation.
- The Council has agreed to remind complaint handling staff to ensure they provide complaint responses within timescales.
Case reference: 23 012 457
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- The Council will remind the Social Housing Providers who process applications to its housing register of the importance of referring applicants to the Council’s Housing Options team where there are any indications the Council may owe a homelessness duty.
Case reference: 23 000 304
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council did not take sufficient steps to ensure support was given in an Education, Health and Care plan when a young person was out of school in 2021-2022. The Council will share the Ombudsman's final decision with relevant staff to remind them of the need to ensure that the support in an Education, Health and Care plan is delivered whilst an alternative school is sought.
- The Council will consider what further steps it can take to reduce delays in responding to complaints about a lack of support in Education, Health and Care plans and about alternative education.
Case reference: 22 017 458
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Charging
- The Council has agreed provide the Ombudsman with an action plan to ensure similar delays in sending out financial assessments do not happen in future.
Last updated: 4 April 2015