Worcester City Council
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 7 complaints. Of these, 1 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 5 complaints. We investigated 1 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 1 complaints and upheld 1.
100% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 66% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for Worcester City Council's population, this is 1% upheld decisions per 100,000 residents.
The average for authorities of this type is
1.1% upheld decisions per 100,000 residents. -
Satisfactory remedies provided by the Council
In 1 out of 1 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
100% satisfactory remedy rate.
This compares to an average of 15% in similar authorities.
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Compliance with Ombudsman recommendations
No recommendations were due for compliance in this period
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 Worcester 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.
Councils reminded of duties to investigate renters’ housing concerns
A recent Ombudsman investigation has highlighted local councils’ duties to investigate disrepair concerns in private rented accommodation.
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: 22 010 435
Category: Other Categories
Sub Category: Leisure and culture
- The Council should ensure the leisure centre has a policy for how customer complaints (both general complaints and complaints that a customers behaviour might be inappropriate or unacceptable).
Case reference: 19 016 869
Category: Planning
Sub Category: Enforcement
- The Council has agreed to remind relevant officers that the responsibility lies with the Council to identify specific breaches of planning when it receives a report from a member of the public.
- The Council has agreed to remind relevant officers of the importance of responding to reported breaches of planning control in a timely manner, so that any expedient enforcement action can be taken.
- The Council has agreed to remind relevant officers to keep proper records for decisions, even where the decision is that no action should be taken.
Last updated: 4 April 2015