Middlesbrough Borough Council
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 41 complaints. Of these, 17 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 18 complaints. We investigated 6 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 6 complaints and upheld 6.
100% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 80% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for Middlesbrough Borough Council's population, this is 3.9% 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 6 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
17% satisfactory remedy rate.
This compares to an average of 10% in similar authorities.
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Compliance with Ombudsman recommendations
We recorded compliance outcomes in 5 cases.
In 5 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 Middlesbrough 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.
No reports published
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: 24 002 339
Category: Education
Sub Category: Alternative provision
- The Council has agreed to review how it will ensure complaints received are considered and responded to in line with the complaints policy.
- The Council will review its guidance and policy for arranging alternative provision where a child is not on roll at a school.
- The Council has agree to provide further training for staff on how to consider its duties under Section 19.
Case reference: 23 020 396
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Fostering
- The Council will remind fostering staff of the importance of liaising with the Local Authority Designated Officer when there are concerns about standards of care relating to foster carers.
Case reference: 23 018 361
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Child protection
- The Council agreed to review its ‘Tees Safeguarding Children Partnership procedures’ to ensure it clearly defines roles and responsibilities towards the person who works with or cares for children who is subject to an investigation about an allegation made against them. It should outline who is responsible for engaging the person during the process and for providing updates, copies of documents, outcomes and for monitoring compliance with any recommendations and sanctions.
Case reference: 23 012 894
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will remind all staff in the special educational needs team about its complaints procedure, specifically highlighting what constitutes a complaint and what to do when staff receive a complaint.
Case reference: 22 009 914
Category: Other Categories
Sub Category: Other
- The Counci lhas agreed to remind all staff who communicate with Mrs B in the children’s services, SEN and complaints teams of her reasonable adjustments, make a note on all her relevant files of the adjustments and ensure they are met as far as possible when communicating with her by email and sending hard copy documents by post.
Case reference: 21 019 061
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Other
- The Council will provide its staff dealing with the Children's Services complaints with the training on the criteria for applying children's statutory complaint procedure.
Case reference: 21 010 516
Category: Environment and regulation
Sub Category: Other
- Within four weeks of my final decision, the Council has also agreed to make the following service improvements: • send a reminder to relevant staff about the importance of responding fully to a complaint; • send a reminder to relevant staff about the Council’s powers, under the Prevention of Damage by Pests Act 1949, to require landowners or occupiers to keep their land free from mice and rats; and, • share this decision with relevant members of staff.
Case reference: 21 005 776
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Allocations
- The Council has agreed to ensure partnership agreements and contracts with third parties contain details about how relevant data will be stored or returned to the Council when they end.
- The Council has agreed to review existing agreements with other partners to the housing allocations scheme and consider amending them if needed to ensure accurate records are preserved in line with the Council’s records retention policy.
Case reference: 21 002 324
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Other
- The Council agreed to remind relevant staff of the requirements of the Children Act and Children’s Statutory Complaints Procedures when considering if someone is a suitable representative.
Case reference: 20 010 600
Category: Benefits and tax
Sub Category: Council tax
- The Council has agreed to update its online Council Tax application form process to ensure that applications for unlisted properties, or properties not currently on the valuation list, are raised with the relevant department to ensure the Council registers these properties with the Valuation Office and sets up Council Tax accounts for these properties.
Last updated: 4 April 2015