Nottingham City Council
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 80 complaints. Of these, 33 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 33 complaints. We investigated 14 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 14 complaints and upheld 8.
57% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 80% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for Nottingham City Council's population, this is 2.4% 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 2 out of 8 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
25% 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 8 cases.
In 8 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 Nottingham 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.
Mum left in debt after council stopped autistic son’s school transport
A Nottingham mum was left unable to pay her bills when she had to pay for a taxi to get her son to his special school, because the city council withdrew his free transport, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has found.
City council told to reconsider school admission appeal after Ombudsman investigation
Nottingham City Council has been told to offer a fresh schools admission hearing to a young boy who needed to move school because of ‘honour’ based violence.
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: 23 015 348
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Disabled facilities grants
- The Council has agreed to share a copy of this decision with relevant staff to identify learning from this complaint.
- The Council has agreed to remind relevant staff of the limited considerations which apply in deciding whether adaptation works are reasonable and practicable to ensure tenants of the Council are not disadvantaged compared to Disabled people in other housing tenures.
- The Council has agreed to ensure applications for multiple adaptations to meet different needs are considered individually with regard to the relevant tests of reasonable, practicable, necessary, and appropriate so that the Council does not refuse works which meet these tests because other, unrelated, works, do not.
- The Council has agreed to provide training or guidance to relevant staff on decision making for disabled adaptations, including the law, guidance, and case law referenced in this decision.
Case reference: 23 013 929
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- The Council has agreed to report to us on the changes it said it would make to its procedure for recording and updating information about an applicant’s risk areas and checking this information before making accommodation offers.
- The Council has agreed to remind all officers about its procedures for recording contact with applicants on the system and the requirement to follow the procedure.
Case reference: 23 008 983
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- The Council has agreed to review the letter it sends out to applicants regarding its decision on the main housing duty to ensure it accurately advises applicants of their review rights and to ensure its officers that use this resource and give advice on homeless applications are advised of this change.
Case reference: 23 003 503
Category: Education
Sub Category: School transport
- The Council will review if it needs to make changes to its guidance and training for decision makers and panel members to address: the categories of children for whom accompaniment is and is not relevant and that officers retain discretion to consider individual family circumstances, including work commitments, when deciding when it is reasonable to expect a parent to accompany a child.
- The Council should issue a notice to all parents and carers who have been issued with a companion pass to alert them that there may have been an error in decisions expecting parents to accompany their child to school where the school is beyond statutory walking distance. The Council should invite any parents who consider they may have been affected to contact the Council so their case can be reviewed.
Case reference: 23 001 284
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- The Council will issue written reminders to relevant officers about the duty to provide interim accommodation. It should ensure officers are aware that the legal test for having 'reason to believe' someone is or may be homeless is low. If officers need to make enquiries to establish if a person is homeless, there must be a reason to believe they may be homeless and so the interim accommodation duty applies.
- The Council will issue written reminders to relevant staff to ensure they understand the Council’s duty to notify applicants in writing of the decision on their homelessness applications.
Case reference: 22 017 851
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- The Council will review its procurement policy to reduce the use of B&B/hotel accommodation and increase the supply of other types of temporary accommodation. Where a B&B/hotel placement is the only available option, notify applicants with children, or where a member of the household is pregnant, about the six week maximum limit and their right to request a suitability review when the main housing duty has been accepted.
- The Council will issue a reminder to relevant staff that PHP’s should be reviewed, as a minimum, with every change in duty.
Case reference: 22 013 083
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- The Council will remind relevant staff they should provide information about how to apply to the housing register to anyone who seeks it and of the circumstances in which those fleeing domestic abuse can join the housing register under the exceptions to the local connection criteria.
- The Council will remind relevant staff the duty to provide interim accommodation to those it has reason to believe are homeless and may be in priority need arises immediately and should be met while the Council makes inquiries.
- The Council will provide training or guidance to relevant staff on Chapter 21 of the Homelessness Code of Guidance to ensure the Council completes risk assessments and is aware of the statutory duties and guidance which apply when it has reason to believe an applicant is homeless because of domestic abuse.
- The Council will ensure all ALMOs and contractors delivering services on behalf of the Council are aware of the Council’s complaints policy and have procedures in place to either deal with or refer complaints.
- The Council will issue guidance to staff with responsibility for responding to complaints on keeping complainants informed when the Council will not meet the timescale in its complaint policy.
Case reference: 22 003 583
Category: Environment and regulation
Sub Category: Antisocial behaviour
- The Council will review its processes to ensure that when a tenant requests a transfer or priority on its housing register based on reasonable preference grounds, Nottingham City Homes, on behalf of the Council, sends a written decision to the tenant setting out thee reasons for its decision and review rights.
- The Council will prepare an information sheet to be given to those reporting anti-social behaviour (ASB), whether or not they are council tenants, which sets out the Council's general powers to address ASB reports, and includes information about the community trigger process.
- The Council will review how information can be shared between Nottingham City Homes and the Council's Anti Social Behaviour (ASB) team where council tenants report ASB that relates to individuals who are not council tenants, to avoid individuals having to make reports to both on an ongoing basis.
- The Council will provide guidance to relevant staff at Nottingham City Homes and the Council about the need to consider the precise nature of a complaint, including the power being exercised, before deciding whether to signpost a complainant to the Housing Ombudsman Service or Local Government Social Care Ombudsman or both at the end of the complaints process.
Case reference: 22 003 943
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- The Council will remind relevant staff of the need to properly consider affordability when making an offer of temporary accommodation, particularly when benefit entitlement has yet to be decided.
- The Council will remind relevant staff of the need to carry out essential repairs in a timely fashion.
Case reference: 21 016 233
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Looked after children
- The Council has agreed to remind complaint staff of the statutory guidance on complaint handling and ensures they are aware, either through training or a guidance note, of how to consider complaints about older events.
- The Council has agreed to ensure complaint staff have been trained on how to write appropriate and sensitive complaint responses with supporting evidence.
Last updated: 4 April 2015