Northampton Borough Council
Annual statistics
More about this data
Complaints upheld – complaints in which we found some fault in a council's actions. These include complaints where the council accepted fault before we investigated.
Compliance with Ombudsman recommendations – not complying with our recommendations is rare. An authority with a compliance rate below 100% should scrutinise the complaints where it failed to comply and identify any learning.
Satisfactory remedies provided by the Council – the authority upheld the complaint and we agreed with how it offered to put things right.
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.
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Complaints upheld
50% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 51% in similar authorities.
2 upheld decisions
View upheld decisionsStatistics are based on a total of 4 investigations for the period between 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022
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Compliance with Ombudsman recommendations
No recommendations were due for compliance in this period
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Satisfactory remedies provided by the Council
In 0% of upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
This compares to an average of 20% in similar authorities.
0 satisfactory remedy decisions
Statistics are based on a total of 2 upheld decisions for the period between 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022
View all satisfactory remedy decisions
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 Northampton 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.
Ombudsman reminds councils historic buildings need special consideration
Planners must ensure they refer to the correct legislation when considering applications affecting heritage sites, the Local Government 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: 20 001 885
Category: Benefits and tax
Sub Category: Council tax
- The Council agreed to: review its processes and advise staff of the incident and its consequences and make the training/reference material more robust; target requests for detailed council tax reduction calculations and send them to a specific priority workstream so they are treated urgently and do not get mixed up with general correspondence; change the wording on council tax bills from a passive statement to request information to a more informed statement that it is a right to have it should you so wish, something akin to ‘You are entitled to a written statement setting out the reasons for the reduction decision or, details of the appeals procedure. Please contact us within one month to request this … which will be in bold to stand out on the page.’
Case reference: 20 000 712
Category: Planning
Sub Category: Planning applications
- The Council should produce a joint working agreement to ensure effective communication and cooperation between the Council and Northampton Partnership Homes on complaints.
- The Council should review information sharing arrangements between the Council and Northampton Partnership Homes so that information about complaints can be shared easily.
- The Council should arrange complaint handling training for all senior staff and staff responsible for responding to complaints at Northampton Partnership Homes and the Council.
Case reference: 19 018 143
Category: Environment and regulation
Sub Category: Cemeteries and crematoria
- The Council has altered its procedure to ensure a baby will no longer be interred in the head of adult graves. When the Council becomes part of the new unitary authority it intends to adopt a policy to ensure babies are buried either in the baby section or in a full grave.
Case reference: 19 007 481
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Disabled facilities grants
- Within two months of my final decision on this complaint the Council should draw up an action plan to learn lessons from this complaint. I will not be prescriptive about what those lessons are, but they must include: Improving record keeping including reasons for delay in taking action and agreeing remedial work. Consideration of how the Council can ensure it meets the requirements of the DFG process including inspections, signing off work and providing completion certificates. Reviewing its complaint handling procedures with regards to DFG applications and process.
Last updated: 4 April 2015