Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 65 complaints. Of these, 26 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 26 complaints. We investigated 13 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 13 complaints and upheld 11.
85% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 81% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council's population, this is 4.8 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 0 out of 11 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
0% 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 9 cases.
In 9 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 Rochdale Metropolitan 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.
Rochdale’s systemic SEND issues highlighted in Ombudsman report
Rochdale Borough Council has admitted to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman that it has a backlog of nearly 1,500 support plans to review for children with special educational needs and disabilities.
Rochdale council’s legal challenge rejected and it must now consider Ombudsman's recommendations
Councillors in Rochdale have been told to give proper consideration to a critical report about the way their council pays Special Guardians, after the council unsuccessfully challenged the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman’s decision and powers in the High Court.
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: 24 009 635
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Charging
- The Council has agreed to consider what changes it needs to make to ensure officers, including locum members of staff, are aware of the scope to exercise discretion over using direct payments to employ a close family member living in the same household as a personal assistant.
Case reference: 24 002 363
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Disabled facilities grants
- The Council will provide an update on the lessons learnt actions it has agreed to take.
Case reference: 23 019 082
Category: Environment and regulation
Sub Category: Noise
- Remind staff in writing to confirm to complainants the outcome of investigations into whether a statutory nuisance has occurred.
Case reference: 23 011 518
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Disabled facilities grants
- Provide the Ombudsman with confirmation as to what changes it has made to its communication process for Disabled Facilities Grants, following the review it carried out after this complaint.
Case reference: 23 009 491
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council should create a policy on managing the cases of children with Education Health and Care Plans who receive Education Other Than At School or are Electively Home Educated and provide training to officers in the inclusion and special educational needs teams on it.
Case reference: 23 004 393
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Allocations
- The Council has agreed to review its procedures for:• responding to, and recording decisions on, requests for a change inpriority banding; and• notifying applicants of the outcome of their requests and their right to ask for a review.
- The Council has agreed to review its procedures for:• assessing criteria for Band B in cases of unsuitable conditions inprivately rented properties; and• information sharing between its housing standards and housing standards teams in these cases.
Case reference: 22 007 579
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Residential care
- The Council has agreed to provide safeguarding refresher training to relevant adult social care staff.
Case reference: 22 001 690
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Private housing
- The Council has agreed to share this decision statement with relevant staff in the Private Sector Housing Team to reinforce the learning exercise the Council has already completed.
Case reference: 21 018 593
Category: Education
Sub Category: School transport
- The Council should complete its review of its home to school transport policy and write to the Ombudsman explaining how it now complies with the statutory guidance.
Case reference: 20 014 177
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Residential care
- The Council has agreed to continue its work with the Care Provider to ensure new policies and procedures are implemented to protect residents' personal belongings and valuables effectively, and that people are alerted to these on admission.
Last updated: 4 April 2015