Number of complaints upheld against Warwickshire County Council have been more than halved

The number of complaints upheld against Warwickshire County Council by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) have been more than halved.

A report to this week’s meeting of the council’s resources and fire and rescue overview and scrutiny committee explained that of the seven adverse decisions over the past financial year, six were upheld complaints while another was a partially upheld complaint by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

Over the equivalent period last year there had been 16 adverse findings made against the council which means there was a 56 per cent reduction.

The report explained how the complaints were broken down.

It said: “Of the six LGSCO upheld complaints, two related to deferred entries to school, one concerned a parking fine and the remaining three were in respect of adult social care and related to care packages (including the fees charged).

“In respect of the education complaints, the council agreed to apologise for its error and review the decisions. It also agreed to review its processes for considering applications for deferred entry to school.

“In respect of the upheld adult social care complaints, in one case the council agreed to make a payment of £1,000 to the complainant and make decisions in respect of where the complainant lived involving the complainant and his advocate and support him to move. The council also agreed to train social care and staff on the Mental Capacity Act.

“In the second case, the council agreed to pay the complainants £250 and refund them for the 19 days of respite that was not available to their daughter while in the third case, the LGSCO decided that the council had already remedied the fault when it waived the care fees.”

The report went on to explain that In order to ensure significant work has been undertaken to review policies and procedures in respect of customer complaints and that a revised complaints policy has recently been approved by cabinet.

It added: “The focus of this work will be on resolving complaints at the earliest stage possible, minimising the number of matters referred to the various external bodies and thus the risk of an adverse decision.”