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View online News from the Ombudsman - September 2025 Welcome... Welcome to the latest edition of News from the Ombudsman. In this edition you can read about our: annual review of adult social care complaints concerns about Leicester City Council responses to government consultations using lessons gained from our investigations. We hope you enjoy reading our newsletter. If you'd like to hear more about the work we do, why not follow us on LinkedIn? Annual review of Adult Care complaints launched Earlier this month we launched our annual review of Adult Social Care complaints, which collated data from every complaint we received over the past 12 months about both independent and council-funded care. In the review, we called for complaints to be placed at the heart of any reform of adult social care in England, and for greater accountability in the sector, with complaints and complaint-handling playing a central role in helping people raise concerns when things go wrong and supporting effective oversight of the sector through improved data and intelligence. The past year has seen our adult care caseload rise by eight per cent, including a significant 28 per cent increase in complaints about charging for care services. However this increase has not been seen across the board, and we are still seeing relatively few complaints from people who fund their own care. People who arrange their own care make up an estimated 23% of all care users, yet the number of complaints we received from this group remains disproportionately low. Other interesting statistics from the report include: we upheld nearly eight out of 10 complaints (79 per cent) investigated about adult care the largest area of our work focused on assessment and care planning, followed by charging for care the area with the highest uphold rate in the period was residential care (83 per cent of 149 investigations upheld) followed by charging (81 per cent of 229 investigations). Read more Our concerns about Leicester We have written to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, the Right Honourable Steve Reed MP OBE highlighting our concerns about Leicester City Council. The council has objected to being held accountable after failing to provide a homeless family with suitable accommodation. The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) can step in when the government has concerns about how a local authority is run. It uses information from our investigations alongside other information to understand how each local authority in England is performing. The original report, published in October last year, detailed how a woman and her children escaped domestic abuse and asked Leicester City Council for help with housing. We upheld the family's complaint and recommended the council pay a financial remedy to the family and improve its services. The council agreed to make some changes but refused to pay most of the financial remedy. Read more Our contributions to national debates We responded to several inquiries and consultations over the summer including two consultations from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government on Changing the way the government allocates the Disabled Facilities Grant and the Local Government Outcomes Framework. We also responded to the following select committee inquiries: The Joint Committee on Human Rights inquiry into Human Rights of Children in the Social Care System in England The Public Accounts Committee inquiry into Home to School Transport The Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee inquiry into The Condition of Homes in England. Consultations and inquiries are a good opportunity to use the learning gained from our casework to improve government policy and guidance. Read more News you may have missed Ombudsman investigation uncovers significant delays in Yorkshire council's EHC Plan process Ombudsman calls for reform of adult care complaints in annual review Cheshire East wrongly started care proceedings process against mum who simply needed support Homeless Lincolnshire man left to sleep in car because of council failings Poorly child placed at risk by Lewisham council because of flawed homelessness policy Disabled North Yorkshire residents to see improvements to council's home adaptations service Council wrote to 99 families about EHC Plan reviews that did not happen - Ombudsman  London council failed to review its support for disabled children We look at individual complaints about local public services and all registerable social care providers in England. We remedy injustice and share learning from investigations to improve services. When we find a council or care provider has done something wrong, we recommend how it should put it right. We are free to use and make our decisions independently. Find out more about us at www.lgo.org.uk Manage preferences or unsubscribe Contact us

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