Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 79 complaints. Of these, 33 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 38 complaints. We investigated 8 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 8 complaints and upheld 7.
88% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 81% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council's population, this is 2.4 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 1 out of 7 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 Walsall 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.
No reports published
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: 25 000 070
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will provide the Ombudsman with evidence of the actions to:• Implement a strengthened monitoring process to ensure compliance with EHC Plan specified coordination requirements, for example team around child meetings and compliance checks at annual review.• Review its free school meal policy and practice ensuring timely issue of vouchers.• Improve commissioning practices for therapy as well as monitoring systems and tracking of provision.
Case reference: 24 020 797
Category: Environment and regulation
Sub Category: Refuse and recycling
- The Council should review its procedures for assessing whether someone is eligible for a free bin and make changes to ensure there are clear and transparent criteria for decisions.
- The Council should ensure there is clear guidance in place for officers making decisions, including how to check if the criteria have been met.
Case reference: 24 014 983
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council remind its complaints handling staff to ensure all reasons for late complaints are properly considered and the appropriate policy regarding such complaints is referenced in its responses.
Case reference: 24 011 682
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will issue guidance to relevant staff to ensure that referrals for home tuition are monitored to confirm the provision is put in place.
Case reference: 24 009 914
Category: Education
Sub Category: Alternative provision
- The Council has agreed to remind relevant staff that if the Council agrees to amend an EHC Plan, it must allow the parent of young person at least 15 calendar days to comment or make representations on the proposed amendments, and must issue a final amended EHC Plan within 12 weeks of a review, in line with the statutory guidance.
Case reference: 24 006 858
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- Remind relevant staff of the importance of good record keeping. This is to ensure all Education, Health and Care Plan annual review documents such as invitation letters and decision letters to parents are properly kept on the Council’s system for audit purposes.
- Ensure the Council holds the correct contact details for parents on its system and communicate with them in a timely manner. This is to make sure relevant documents of their children’s Education, Health and Care Plan annual reviews are correctly issued to them, and they are kept updated about their children’s cases.
- Provide guidance and training to relevant staff about the Council’s non-delegable duty under section 42 of Children and Families Act 2014. This is to ensure the Council provide the specified special educational provision contained in Section F of an Education, Health and Care Plan for the child or young person.
- Remind relevant staff to consider and complete re-assessments of a child and young person’s needs in accordance with statutory timescales, Regulation and Code.
Case reference: 24 005 662
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- •Remind relevant staff of the importance of effective complaint handling.
- •Remind relevant staff of the Council’s statutory duties in issue decision notices within four weeks of the annual review and ensure the final amended Plans are issued within the relevant timescale.
Case reference: 23 020 235
Category: Environment and regulation
Sub Category: Refuse and recycling
- The Council should review its current process in place for its bin men to be able to raise issues they come across when collecting bins. It should take this case into consideration when doing so.If there is not a system in place, the Council should consider implementing one.
Case reference: 23 010 532
Category: Education
Sub Category: School transport
- The Council will remind staff involved in free school transport appeals that when deciding if there were closer suitable schools, they must check a school place was available to the child at the time of the admission applications.
Last updated: 4 April 2015