LG & SC Ombudsman Anmeldelser 

Without the intervention of LGSCO I would not have received a refund of care fees from Herts County Council (HCC). I had exhausted HCC's complaints procedure and they were unwilling to budge on a refund despite admitting maladministration and failings in service. When faced with the prospect of an LGSCO investigation they did a complete u-turn and refunded me. The LGSCO representative contacted me promptly and kept me well informed. I have knocked off one star from the review because HCC capitulated obviating the need for an investigation thus making it easier and quicker for LGSCO to resolve.

The service is not actually interested in the most vulnerable members of society. They demonstrate an acute lack of perception, empathy or acknowledgement of the stress that families go through - not least to make a complaint, never mind the actual focus of the complaint itself. I'd question the suitability of the assessors, as it would appear that they make their life easier by suggesting that you don't even have a complaint in the first place and therefore refuse to assess it. Not fit for purpose, feels a tokenistic gesture that actually supports the failings of Local Authorities as that makes everyone's life easier - but not those who have been failed.

The LGO refuse to investigate my local council for corruption. It's to do with how much taxpayers' money it will cost, apparently.

The initial complaint form limits the amount of information you can supply to support your complain. This results in a failure. If you appeal and supply evidence that supports your complaint it goes back to the original assessor who again rejects your complaint without specifying where you are wrong. In their small print it says that they will select the information that they will consider. I suspect that they use the tea lady to fill in, perhaps due to staff shortages

They side with the council and sabotage the complaint. Not fit for purpose

This service is not fit for purpose and is completely biased in the Council’s favour despite compelling evidence. Absolutely pointless raising a genuine complaint with them - 99% bad reviews on Trustpilot tells you everything you need to know! This service is a complete waste of money and serves absolutely no purpose other than protecting Councils and allowing them to accept no accountability for their actions. In turn this allows disfunctional behaviour to breed. This service might protect Councils in the short term but longer term the consequences of allowing disfunctional behaviours to continue takes its toll. No surprise that so many Councils are heading for bankruptcy!

Complaint escalated to the LGO before Xmas last year, as our so-called County Council refuse to do maintenance on land adjoining our property, and have not addressed the problems with flooding that has occurred on numerous occasions to properties in our road.
The LGO first closed our complaint on a technicality after making us wait nearly 3 months. Then when we got the complaint resubmitted, they just re-closed the complaint again with No Further Action.
A complete waste of time and effort, however we do at least have the negative Final responses from both the Council and the LGO, so if we are now flooded we can prove that we took the complaint all they way and we were ignored....that's the only good thing to come out of it! Seems that the LGO is just another quango taking up public money for no reason.

The LGSCO ignored a very serious complaint about blatant corruption and inappropriate behaviour by Chichester District Council Planning and Enforcement Department. Even if you submit all the evidence, they don't even bother to start to investigate 99% of complaints. The LGSCO is a complete and utter farce. It is a waste of time as it doesn't do it's job properly and all of the staff are crap. It should be disbanded and a proper regulator put in it place. I would give zero stars if I could!

Where do I start with this body? Well let's take a look at what they don't do. They don't investigate complaints properly and when the alleged investigator is informed of breaches in law they continue to ignore such and call in the expensive lawyers at Bevan Brittan. In my case I had a public lawyer address matters in which s149 EQA 2010 is a required duty and the LGSO must show evidence of discharge of the duty. They could not and hired a lawyer in the wrong area of law.

They then refused to re-examine their decision process and result so this will be heading towards legal proceedings.

The LGSO as others have detailed simply do not care about people with disabilities. They also do not understand EQA 2010 law nor understand the difference between a proper & "genuine assessment" required under s149 of the Act but cite anticipatory reasonable adjustments as the process.

They do not read emails nor understand nor care about hat which they allegedly investigate.

Appalling body and one which wastes tax-payers money in hiring lawyers to write letters which are not only incorrect in law but totally inappropriate. It is the tax-payer who picks up the tab for their obstinate manner and refusal to examine their appalling service.

This body is not allowed to determine whether a council acts lawfully or not but this is exactly what this body did in my case.

They are not fit for purpose nor should they be allowed to continue

What a complete failure of the system. We opened another case against Cornwall Council with certain officers abuse of position that were proven previously but nothing resolved so went on again for years, these issues continued to date, so forced to open another case with the LGO, as you all may know you are required to go down the long winded process first where you need to open a complaint case with the council you are complaining about, that’s a complete farce as never any outcome and only dismissed. Then and only then allowed to open an LGO case.

LGO would rather pass the case regardless of the strong evidence presented before them and claim they will only investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which they call ‘fault’. And consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect on the person making the complaint. And provide a free service, but must use public money carefully… and also go on to claim that previous complaints prior to January 23 cannot be taken into context, yet our main complaint relates to issues to date with using historical evidence proving a catalogue of failings spanning years. Surly that’s how we make a case?? To draw all the evidence??

Yes LGO we understand all this and the evidence presented clearly highlights these failures as you’re well aware and obviously the reason we opened the case initially for some possible help and has had a significant affect for the complainant with great financial loss and destruction of our land as a direct result of the council failings and abuse of position of certain council officers that could be clearly seen. and we obviously understand that the LGO claim they try to use our taxes we have all paid in wisely, but what makes our case less important and why would you imply it would not be wise to take on our case? when you can see clear evidence of failures ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’ having a significant impact on the complainant!!

Cannot be bothered service it’s become we feel, what’s the point of anyone trying to resolve issues with the LGO??? When they clearly refuse to take real complaints on… now that’s a waste of the public time and purse itself.. and with your decision to not proceed with the case, the council will yet again continue with their failures and abuse of position for many more years as they have done so from the previous LGO case that proved council failures.

A complete breakdown of the system as usual!!!!!

I had the exact experience of earlier reviewer Blair, with the same LGSCO employees.

My complaint against the Council was closed at assessment by the LGSCO investigator Mr L, who relayed the Council’s side of the story as ‘The Facts’ my complaint (the actual facts) was completely disregarded – when I replied in full and correcting the errors in his report and asked him (officially) to review his decision, I was completely ignored.

He then further ignored a Service complaint correctly submitted via my LGSCO account email and by post.

A month later I submitted a fresh complaint against the Council with new and revised information to the LGSCO – despite my protestations this complaint was allocated inappropriately to the same Mr L that I had a live service complaint against! He closed my complaint within 2 days and with no explanation,

So! the LGSCO is biased, lazy and vindictive.

I forced their hand with another service complaint against Mr L this one sent by recorded/signed for and photographed deposit at Post Office, as well as by email.
The officer dealing with this service complaint (a Ms S) roundly told me off for daring to question the competence of her precious Mr L, finishing her tirade with the mantra of the LGSCO which is also the cloak of invincibility behind which they hide – complete lack of accountability.
‘‘We have now finished dealing with your service complaint. There are no further stages or rights of appeal against my decision about your service complaint. We shall not acknowledge or reply to any further contact from you about it.
Yours sincerely. J.S.’’

I asked the LGSCO for help with an injustice foisted on my family by the local Council, the Ombudsman instead replied with their own version of injustice, which is to always back the Local Government against the citizen - the citizen left with no further recourse or other avenue of complaint.

Shame on them all…

Appalling quality of service and non-existent complaints system.

In early February I wrote to the LG&SCO as follows.

To Ms S

Thank you for your prompt reply, however, it is quite bewildering that whilst Mr L cannot be bothered for respond to my telephone message after more than a week, you are able to dismiss my service complaint the same day.

It also beggars belief that Mr L is able to consider my complaint simply based on a three-page letter sent to the Council in response to their Final Decision. As previously stated, there is no conceivable reason as to why Mr L did not request the other relevant documentation pertaining to my complaint, as required in LG&SCO’s own Guide, before making a Final Decision. Whilst Mr L might well be experienced, it does not necessarily mean that he is either competent, or infallible. With regard to Mr L being responsible for reviewing his own poor decision, there was always only going to be one outcome. Other Ombudsman Services require a review to be undertaken by a senior manager, in order to ensure a consistent and fair outcome is achieved.

In my considered view, the service provided by the LG&SCO fails to deliver a reasonable service to users. The manner in which my initial complaint has been dealt with simply highlights the arrogance of the LG&SCO, in choosing what cases it might wish to investigate and to dismiss many others on a whim. That is not the way to run a well-respected and trustworthy organisation.

I note from your reply that the LG&SCO will ‘not acknowledge or reply to any further contact’ from me ‘about it’. On that basis I have copied this reply to my local MP, with the hope that something might be undertaken in the future in order to ensure that the LG&SCO is properly managed in a fair, consistent and respectful manner, fully focused on delivering the type and quality of service the General Public quite reasonably expects.

Also copied to my local MP.

5 stars Service all around.
Me and my special needs daughter were being treated unfairly so I took our case to the Local government and social care ombudsman and I can't praise them enough.
From the nice lady who called me to the nice lady who did the investigation were wonderful and treated me and my daughter with great care and support.
I provided all the information they asked for and in the end me and my daughter got the justice we deserved.
I am very grateful that they exist.
Thank you very much.

Absolutely incredible. I read reviews and was put off.
But it was a long process. And you got to keep up loading all the evidence you have. You have to put the effort in!!!!!!.
They can't do it all for u.
They can only investigate if u have a good solid case.
If there's no case there's no case.
I'm very happy with the effort and help of staff. Thankyou !!!!!!!

What an absolute pile of crap.
It defies logic how this organisation is allowed to get away with this level of incompetance.
My complaint with Manchester City Council was based, in part, on the two year delay and their inability to carry out the simpliest aspects of the new rental licensing scheme introduced in areas of Manchester. As such a complaint was made to the local government Ombudsman, and their rationale for dismissing my complaint out of hand, was the delay between the beggining of my original complaint and the filing of the ombudsman complaint.
This is for an ongoing issue, which is still ongoing even now... The ombudsman has completely ignored one of the major issues and decided not to investigate further based ON that issue.
This 'Organisation' clearly has procedures in place to find the tiniest minutia of your complaint to use an an excuse as to reject it. What is clearly worse, there are people who worfk there, reading your complaints and see you asking for help, and thier persoanl moral code allows them to be party to such a scandalous and brazenly dishonest practice.

These people are beyond incompetent. Given that they state the only way to appeal their decision if to escalate the issue to the court system, for a judicial review, which will take even longer, this is a prime example of how one government organisation is complict in the inactions and failures of another, and is far to eager to conspire together in a coverup, continually misleading the needy and desperate people who were hoping that the ombudsman would be able to help.

Do not, DO NOT, under any circumstances you can avoid, file your complaint with these people, you will be sorely disapointed and in the process achieve less than nothing.
Go to your local MP, speak to your local press or anyone for that matter. Hell, my hairdresser is more help than these people.

Whistle blowers are needed to make the LGSCO fit for purpose. Government and parliament should know that the LGSCO is not impartial, open or transparent. It has the worst reviews on trustpilot 99% bad. This has been going on for years and election year is the best time to get residents proper justice. Other ombudsman type organisations also have bad trustpilot reviews. Such as ICO, CEDR, FOS etc. These should all be on the bonfire of the Quangos.

Useless. I wrote to LG&SC Ombudsman about a noise complaint being stalled for 8 months despite noise issues despite the law stating noise issues with evidence (of which I have with the noise app) should've only taken 6 weeks. I sent a complaint against my council including evidence my council rejecting my noise complaint via letter. lgo.org.uk response? CASE CLOSED as case still open?!?!?!? Use fackers both lgo and my council.

This failing group of incompetent investigators are motivated by a desire to cover-up the wrong-doing of equally incompetent Councils. They refuse to disclose recognised levels of investigative training expected of staff, appear unable to decipher the most basic evidence and make decisions that appear to ignore the statutory obligations of the Councils they seek to protect from appropriate scrutiny.
And people are dying as a result..!
They are apparently unaccountable for their decisions, thereby leaving the whistleblowers that dare to disclose wrongdoing with no viable recourse.
Safeguarding is the responsible of everyone, but the LGSC Ombudsman appears oblivious to such obligations, preferring to silence as many critics as possible.
Such willful abuse and neglect of power and responsibilities could constitute a criminal offence of Misconduct in Public Office.
It's about time the conduct of the LGSC Ombudsman and his team is subjected to suitable scrutiny if further deaths at the hands of irresponsible Councils is to be avoided.

They are nonentities; full of bribed professionals that have morals for rights. Men and women that can’t afford to say the truth or discern what is good/right. They don’t know what investigation means, not to talk of evidence. They lie for their living and incapable of judgement. Never go there; if you have a meaningful case, go to the court for civil litigation. When I’m done with the council, I’ll expose them the more.

I wish I'd read these reviews before wasting my time with these criminals. Cornwall council had refused to even send a letter to my noisy neighbours, claiming they didn't have to because it's an 'insulation problem'. Amazing that they could identify this remotely-especially since the insulation has been recently checked by our housing association and is fine! The useless ombudsman simply agreed with the council's psychic evaluation of the situation and even managed to be officious and rude at the same time! I can't even now close my account with them!! It's absolutely sickening that you have no right to complain about shoddy public services except to organizations who are obviously paid to shoot you down in flames. Unfortunately my local tory MP is a waste of space, so I literally cannot do anything more but move home.