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Making a complaint about the local authority

Published
20/07/21

Most carers find that things usually goes smoothly when they deal with the local authority around their friend or relative’s care, and they are generally happy with the service they receive. However, in a small number of cases, things do not go so well.

Some of the most common complaints include:

  • Feeling that the local authority hasn’t provided you with all of the assessments that you should be entitled to.
  • Being frustrated by very long delays in carrying out assessments, making decisions or providing services.
  • Disagreeing with a local authority decision, such as whether you or the person you care for are entitled to support and how the council have applied the eligibility criteria.
  • Being unhappy with the support plan that the local authority has produced including feeling that it doesn’t satisfactorily meet the eligible needs identified.
  • Disputing their assessment of you or the person you care for’s financial situation and ability to pay for services.
  • Being unhappy with the amount allocated for a personal budget and feeling that it is not enough to afford the services required.
  • Disagreeing with the cost of services provided by the local authority and whether it is a fair amount to charge.
  • Experiencing problems with the way that services are delivered by the local authority.
  • Being upset with how you or the person you care for has been treated by local authority staff, including feeling that you have been discriminated against.

If you experience any of these situations, or are unhappy with the service provided by the local authority for any other reason, then it is important to make a complaint. You may think it isn’t worth complaining, but not only will it help to resolve your own situation but it will also hopefully improve the services for everyone else who uses them afterwards too. Local authorities often don’t know what they are doing wrong and how to improve it without this feedback, so it is important to give them the opportunity to change.

If you feel like you or the person you care would struggle to make a complaint yourselves, it could help to use an advocate to do this for you. To find out more, take a look at our guide ‘Getting an independent advocate’.

The best place to start is by complaining directly to the local authority about the issue, as most problems can be resolved through this process alone. Each local authority will have their own internal complaints procedure, so you could ask your council for theirs or take a look at their website.

Some councils might suggest that you discuss it with them informally first. This can sometimes be the quickest way to resolve the problem, but if you would rather, you can still go straight to making a formal complaint.

To do this, you can write a letter to your local authority’s Director of Adult Services, explaining what the issue is. When writing this letter, it is important to make it very clear that it is a complaint. Try and explain exactly what the problem is and what the impact has been as clearly as you can. Be as precise as possible about dates and times of phone calls, meetings, letters and emails. It is also a good idea to include any relevant evidence you may have. Keep it brief and focused on the specific issue; one or two pages is usually plenty. Irwin Mitchell have produced a free template letter which you might also find helpful.

Try to make your complaint as soon as possible after the issue occurs. This is not only so that the information is fresh in your mind but also because the local authority may refuse to consider complaints about events that happened a considerable time in the past.

If you have tried making a complaint to the local authority directly, but you aren’t happy with their response, then the next step is to contact the ombudsman.

Ombudsmen are independent and are there to impartially investigate complaints into organisations that have not been resolved directly. For local authorities, you should contact the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO). Their service is completely free.

To make a complaint to the LGSCO, you should fill in their online complaints form, call their telephone helpline on 0300 061 0614 or write them a letter by post. They will then take a look at your complaint and assess whether they can and should investigate it. If they do decide to look into it further, they may be in touch with both you and the local authority for further information. They will then weigh up all the evidence from both sides and make a decision about what should happen next. If they think that your complaint is justified, they will suggest what the local authority should do to rectify the problem. They will publish an anonymized version of the final decision on their website.

This process can take a little while. If you or the person you care for are vulnerable, for instance if the situation has affected your mental health, then you should let the ombudsman know when you talk to them. They may be able to prioritise your complaint and deal with it faster.

The LGSCO will not consider old complaints, so you must contact them with 12 months of becoming aware of the problem. You can complain on behalf of someone else but they must agree or you must have the right to do so. You can also contact the ombudsman if the local authority has not responded to your complaint in a reasonable time – the LGSCO currently define this as 12 weeks.

If you are also unhappy with the decision that the ombudsman makes, you may be able to get a judicial review. This is a type of court proceeding by which people are able to challenge decisions made by public bodies including local authorities.

In this process, a judge takes a look at the case and decides whether the decision was lawful. This means that rather than deciding whether the conclusion they reached was right or wrong, they will look at the way that the decision was made and whether the right procedures were followed. If you are unhappy with the conclusion the local authority came to rather than the process they followed to get there, then a judicial review might not be your best option.

To find out more, you could discuss your situation with a solicitor who specialises in adult social care. They will do an initial consultation with you to tell you whether they think you have a good case or not. To find a solicitor, take a look at the GOV.UK website and tick the box for Community Care.

You may qualify for legal aid to pay for the costs of this process. To find out, take a look at the GOV.UK website. Bear in mind though that if you do not qualify for legal aid, the costs involved in undertaking a judicial review can be very high so you should be sure that you can afford this before you begin the process. Even the initial consultation with a solicitor may be expensive.

If you are unhappy with how your complaint is being handled, you can also ask your MP to intervene on your behalf. As one of their constituents, they should help you in matters just like this.

To find out who your MP is and how to contact them, take a look at the Parliament website.

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