Barnsley Council did not provide a “satisfactory remedy” before nine complaints reached ombudsman last year

Information released by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman upheld nine cases between 2021/22 – but found that BMBC had not “provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman” in any of them.

Between 2021-2022, the ombudsman upheld 69 per cent of complaints investigated.

In 100 per cent of cases, the ombudsman were “satisfied the Council had successfully implemented our recommendations.”

Nine decisions were upheld in 2021/22, compared to five in 2020/21.

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman looks at complaints about councils and some other authorities, including adult social care providers.

It can remedy individual people’s problems by investigating complaints, and recommending how organisations can put things right.

Councillor Alan Gardiner, cabinet spokesperson for core services, said: “We take full responsibility for the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman findings, and we’re committed to working with our residents to put things right when things go wrong.

“It’s encouraging that the percentage of complaints upheld by the Ombudsman has decreased from last year whilst appreciating the number of complaints received is higher.

“It’s positive that the Ombudsman recognised that we’ve successfully implemented all recommendations from their investigations in all cases, and we will continue to work towards improving our performance in the number of complaints that the Ombudsman identifies as us providing a satisfactory remedy to the complaint.

“Some of the cases we handle are complex investigations with many different strands and we aim to respond to these swiftly through our complaints processes and learn from complaints when things go wrong.

“We’re passionate about delivering excellent services for our residents and as part of putting our residents first, we have recently introduced an additional resource into the team who manage our complaints function to ensure that we continue to prioritise complaints, detect early warning signs of problems, and offer opportunities to improve service delivery.

“I want to reassure residents that we’re always looking for ways to improve what we do by listening to and taking on board residents’ feedback, which is a crucial part of improving our services.

"We’ll use this report as part of our learning and development to explore how we can improve ways of working.”