City tops complaints league table
There were almost twice as many complaints about Birmingham City Council as any other authority across England last year, it has been revealed.
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, which investigates complaints made by the public about councils, received 561 complaints and enquiries relating to Birmingham in 2019/20.
This was up from 484 in 2018/19 and 455 in 2017/18, with the biggest area of upset being "environmental services, public protection and regulation" (179 complaints this year).
The ombudsman singled out the issue of waste collection in a letter to the authority.
The council with the next highest total last year was Essex County Council, with 285 complaints or enquiries – while 317 were received by Transport for London, also covered by the ombudsman.
Birmingham City Council has the largest population of any council area in England at 1.1m according to the Office for National Statistics, but other council areas with high populations received far fewer complaints or enquiries.
Leeds (population 793,000) received 185, Sheffield (population 584,000) received 143, Cornwall (population 569,000) received 173 and Manchester (population 552,000) received 157.
When residents are not happy with the result of a complaint made directly to the council, they can go to the ombudsman – which decides whether or not to investigate the complaint.
If the complaint if upheld following an investigation, the watchdog can make recommendations for how the local authority should remedy the problem including compensating residents.
In Birmingham’s case last year, the ombudsman investigated 153 complaints and upheld 119, or 78 per cent.
The "average upheld rate for similar authorities" was 67 per cent.
But the figures show in all cases where complaints were upheld, the ombudsman was satisfied by the measures subsequently taken by the council.
Complied
The ombudsman noted a number of complaints were about waste collection, and a report into 17 complaints was published during the year.
In a letter to interim chief executive Chris Naylor, local government and social care ombudsman Michael King said there were "repeated failures to collect household waste, recycling, and garden waste".
He said he was pleased the council complied with recommendations following the report.
But he added: "It is therefore disappointing that we have continued to receive many complaints about similar, ongoing problems with the waste collection service.
"I hope as new procedures and working practices embed, we will see reductions in the number of complaints being registered with us."
Another specific complaint flagged by the ombudsman was a "failure to properly consider an application for support for transport" for an adult with difficulties, which led to his mother taking him to college herself for a full academic year.
A Birmingham City Council spokesperson said: "We fully accept the standard of service in the cases highlighted by the ombudsman was not what it should have been.
"We reiterate our apologies to those affected and are determined to learn from any cases where it is found that we should have done more or done things differently.
"Our journey of improvement is continuous and we will not let up in our effort to reach the standards that are expected by each and every person in this city."
The issue of council complaints was recently addressed at a co-ordinating overview and scrutiny committee, where councillors heard there were plans for a new complaints handling model.
A report to committee members by officers stated a problem with the current process was that failings are sometimes "not resolved" which leads to avoidable further complaints.
The report recommended creating "dedicated virtual complaints teams" in the council’s services directorates.
There would also be a "small, central team" with an overview of all the complaints data.
During the meeting, deputy council leader Cllr Brigid Jones (Lab) said the aim should be to fix problems the first time to avoid more complaints in the future.
