We have just launched our latest focus report on complaints about councils’ fostering services.

Focus reports bring together a collection of cases to tell the stories of people affected, when things have gone wrong. We want councils to use them to improve services by learning from the mistakes of others.

On fostering, we hope it will help councils to give the best possible chances to children and young people who are so reliant on them to achieve their potential.

Some of the common issues we highlight include:

• Providing the right information up front – a badly matched placement was doomed to fail because of inadequate advice about the child’s needs
• Contact with birth families – three children saw their contact with siblings changed to a yearly letter without the council explaining the reasons
• Dealing with allegations – two children were removed from a settled placement with no prior warning, without a proper review being done

We also cover other subjects such as: fostering payments, social work visits and SEN support.

Read more

We have launched a new guide for local councils on handling complaints about adult social care services.

The guide sets out how local councils in England should handle complaints about adult social care, based on the Local Authority Social Services and National Health Service Complaints (England) Regulations 2009.

It includes a new model for handling complaints which allows councils to try to resolve complaints early, before moving on to having a closer look at issues raised where this is not possible.

Although the guide is aimed at people working for local councils, it will also help service users and their families understand what they should expect when challenging decisions or making a complaint about the care they or their loved ones have received.

Ombudsman, Ms Amerdeep Somal said:

“Good, effective systems that allow people with care needs and their families to raise concerns and challenge decisions are at the heart of enabling people to live independently and with dignity while also promoting their rights.

“When things go wrong, service users should expect the same quality of complaints handling wherever they are in the country, but sadly this is not the case.

“Through our investigations, we have found a number of councils unaware of the legislation around handling adult social care complaints and we continue to see councils operating two stage complaints processes, despite the legislation only allowing for a single stage.

“In issuing this guide I hope service users will better understand their rights and local authorities their responsibilities for a more consistent approach to complaints handling.”

We have launched five good practice guides on complaint handling to support local councils and other organisations to successfully adopt our Complaint Handling Code, alongside managing other complaints processes.

The guides have been developed in consultation with a group of councils who have been piloting the Complaint Handling Code. They are based on real-life, front-line experience of people handling complaints day-to-day in a wide range of councils, as well as their experience of discussing complaints with senior leaders and elected members.

The guides are aimed at specific roles within the complaint process to make the most of learning from the experience of the pilot councils and wider best practice.

You can now find the following guides on our website:

• Complaint handlers: a proportionate approach to complaints
• Complaint managers: designing and delivering effective complaints systems
• Statutory officers & senior leaders: a guide to effective oversight of complaint systems
• Members responsible for complaints: a guide to effective scrutiny of complaint systems
• Managing complaints in contracted and commissioned services: a good practice guide

These guides replace our previous publication on effective complaint handling published in 2020. 

Sharing the learning from our casework is a vitally important facet of what we do.

Our Ombudsman, Amerdeep Somal has recently attended meetings with stakeholders and decision makers across the sector, including the Chair of the Housing Communities and Local Government Select Committee, the Chair of the Education Select Committee the Lords Minister for Housing and Local Government, as well as other stakeholders in organisations relevant to our work.

We also use what we learn from our investigations to inform national debates, and it  continues to be a busy period of consultations and inquiries. We have responded the following in the last month alone:

• Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) consultation on Strengthening the Standards and conduct framework for local authorities in England
• MHCLG consultation on Local authority funding reform
• The MHCLG Planning reform working paper
• The Education Committee inquiry into solving the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Crisis