Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 122 complaints. Of these, 66 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 40 complaints. We investigated 16 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 16 complaints and upheld 14.
88% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 81% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council's population, this is 4 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 14 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
14% 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 11 cases.
In 11 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 Sandwell 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.
Council agrees to review its school transport policy following Ombudsman investigation
Sandwell council has agreed to review its school transport policy after the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman found flaws in the way it considered a family’s application for travel support.
Nursing home fails to provide dignified care to Sandwell woman - Ombudsman
A Sandwell woman suffered significant hair, diet and skin problems because the nursing home her local council placed her in failed to meet her cultural needs.
Council makes serious unsubstantiated allegations about asylum seeker during Ombudsman investigation
Sandwell council refused to let a vulnerable mother have her representative present at an important meeting – and made serious and unsubstantiated allegations about both of them during an investigation by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.
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: 25 017 212
Category: Education
Sub Category: Other
- Review and update the Gifted and Talented Grant application process.
Case reference: 25 000 658
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Assessment and care plan
- The Council agreed to undertake a review to consider:- the procedures used to prioritise cases when someone waits for a care needs assessment; - the communications it has with those waiting to cover matters such as waiting times and priority given to their case; - the communications it has once social care needs assessments begin to ensure they understand the steps involved before any care is put in place; - the advice and procedures it has in place to support social workers when they need to set up an urgent package of care before a needs assessment and / or care and support planning has fully completed.
Case reference: 24 021 237
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Allocations
- The Council will review how it retains records to ensure key documents are available when requested.
- The Council will remind relevant staff the importance of proper record keeping.
Case reference: 24 019 391
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- Remind relevant staff of the importance of effective complaint handling, adhering to timescales and offering correct escalation rights.
Case reference: 24 018 450
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will identify areas of staff shortages (including Educational Psychologists and other key officers). It will produce and provide the Ombudsman with an action plan outlining steps it has taken or intends to take to address these shortages.
- The Council will remind relevant officers, either through training or a briefing note, of the Council’s duties to consider its section 19 duty as soon as it is aware that a child is not attending school full-time. The Council will provide relevant officers with a copy of the Ombudsman's guidance Out of school, out of sight? published July 2022.
Case reference: 24 017 448
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- • Remind relevant staff of the importance of effective complaint handling and giving an escalation right.
- • Remind relevant staff of the Council duty to include provisions to assist in preparation for adulthood in EHC Plans from year nine.
Case reference: 24 014 390
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- •provide details of the action it is taking to reduce the time it is taking to allocate and assess homeless applications;
- •carry out a review of its procurement of temporary accommodation and identify ways of increasing the supply of different types of self-contained temporary accommodation;
- •provide guidance / training for officers to ensure that homelessness applicants who the Council accepts a duty to provide interim accommodation for, receive suitable accommodation;
- •issue a reminder to its staff who respond to complaints about housing and homelessness, about the difference between the Housing Ombudsman and the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, and where to direct complainants.
Case reference: 24 008 435
Category: Environment and regulation
Sub Category: Refuse and recycling
- the Council has agreed to put in place, or strengthen, systems to ensure collection crews are aware of properties with assisted collections on their rounds, and what this involves in each case.
- the Council has agreed to put in place, or strengthen, systems to liaise with organisations that are planning large-scale roadworks to develop contingency plans to mitigate the impact of their work on waste collections, particularly assisted waste collections.
Case reference: 24 007 933
Category: Other Categories
Sub Category: Land
- The Council has agreed to send a memo to all complaint handling staff reminding them stage one complaint responses should include details on how to escalate a complaint to the second stage of its complaints process.
Case reference: 24 006 677
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Allocations
- Review the way it considers overcrowding and bedroom need, and ensures relevant staff are aware of and take account of the statutory overcrowding standards.
- Ensure relevant staff signpost complainants to the correct ombudsman.
Last updated: 4 April 2015