Salford City Council
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 66 complaints. Of these, 28 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 27 complaints. We investigated 11 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 11 complaints and upheld 9.
82% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 81% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for Salford City Council's population, this is 3.2% 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 9 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
22% 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 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 Salford 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.
Salford woman left without proper support because council failed to reassess her
A Salford woman with autism was left without proper support after the city council failed to review her care plan for more than five years, 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: 23 013 817
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will review its alternative education policy alongside our published guidance ‘Out of school, out of sight?’ July 2022. It should consider the recommendations we made, specifically with a view to ensuring it acts without delay. The Council will provide the Ombudsman with the outcome of its review.
Case reference: 23 012 455
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Disabled facilities grants
- The Council will consider the effectiveness of the agreement it has with the local NHS Trust to deliver adult social care occupational therapy assessments on behalf of the Council, and whether any steps could be taken to reduce the wait time.
Case reference: 23 013 933
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Friends and family carers
- The Council will remind Council Officers dealing with children’s statutory complaints that where a complaint is made in writing the stage two timelines begin at the date of request.
Case reference: 22 015 479
Category: Education
Sub Category: Alternative provision
- The Council will review and if needed amend the policy/mechanism it has in place for how schools inform it of the details of pupils who fail to attend school regularly, or have missed ten school days or more, as outlined in the statutory guidance, to ensure it is receiving suitable information about children out of education from schools.
- The Council will review and if needed amend its staff guidance to include clear advice about the need to promptly decide whether it has a duty to secure alternative provision (the section 19 duty) or consider taking enforcement action (pursuant to its section 426A duty) under the Education Act 1996. This covers situations when it comes to the Council's attention that a child may not be receiving suitable education. The Council should consider including the expectations set out in the statutory guidance and the Ombudsman's focus report Out of sight... out of mind?
- The Council will review and if needed amend its Access to Education policy to ensure the need for parental consent does not place an unnecessary barrier in the way of making decisions on whether a section 19 duty and alternative education provision is owed to a child absent from education.
- The Council will then provide training or notices/bulletins to relevant staff to highlight any changes to guidance and/or procedure.
Case reference: 22 015 458
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- Update the letting scheme’s website to show the amended allocations policy.
Case reference: 22 014 120
Category: Education
Sub Category: Alternative provision
- Provide guidance to staff about alternative education provision and their responsibilities for ensuring it is considered and provided where necessary.
Case reference: 22 012 611
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Child protection
- The Council has agreed to remind officers of the requirement to complete the children's statutory complaints procedure once started, within the statutory timescales.
Case reference: 22 012 559
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will also: explain what it will do to prevent similar occurrences detailed in this complaint. The Ombudsman would like to see evidence of service improvement which specifically addresses occurrences where children are without sufficient educational provision.
Case reference: 22 011 420
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Assessment and care plan
- The Council will provide evidence of the staff ‘learning’ undertaken following the failure to consider all available options to facilitate a hospital discharge in May 2022.
- The Council will provide evidence of the action taken (supervisions and agenda items) to ensure amendments to packages of care are only made following a proportionate review or reassessment.
- The Council will provide evidence of the actions taken to ensure all relevant parties, and particularly Lasting Power of Attorneys, are consulted during all assessment and support planning decisions, unless dictated otherwise by the service user.
Case reference: 22 003 061
Category: Planning
Sub Category: Enforcement
- issue a reminder to its planning enforcement officers of the procedures and timescales in its planning enforcement policy for the investigation of reports of planning control breaches
- review its process for monitoring the progress of investigation of reports of planning control breaches and their completion within the required timescales.
Last updated: 4 April 2015