Contacting the Ombudsman
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (the Ombudsman) is a free, independent and impartial service which investigates complaints about most council services, adult social care providers (including care homes and home care agencies) and some other organisations providing public services.
The Ombudsman is not an appeals body or regulator for Councils. They cannot ‘review’ decisions made by the Council but can determine whether the correct steps or actions have been taken when making a decision.
The Ombudsman will investigate if a council has acted unfairly or caused injustice by maladministration, such as failing to do something it should have done, doing something it should not have done, or through unreasonable delays in acting.
You have the right to contact the Ombudsman at any stage of a complaint, but the Ombudsman also expects you to have given the Council a chance to deal with your complaint before you contact them. Usually, the Ombudsman will only consider a complaint if it has already been through all stages of the Council’s complaint handling process.
Full details of how the Ombudsman deals with complaints.
The Ombudsman can also be contacted via:
- Web: www.lgo.org.uk
- Telephone: 0300 061 0614