(AGENPARL) – Mon 31 March 2025 Welcome to News from the Ombudsman, bringing you the latest information, news and views from the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.
View online [ https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/UKLGO/bulletins/3d6e910 ]
local government and social care ombudsman [ http://www.lgo.org.uk/ ]
*News from the Ombudsman – March 2025*
Welcome…
Welcome to the latest edition of News from the Ombudsman.
In this edition you can read about our:
* New Chief Executive
* Talk with Special Educational Needs specialists
* Contribution to a national consultation
* New resources to help councils tackle your complaints effectively
* Latest Good Practice Guide for local authorities
* Latest annual survey results
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*Meet our new Chief Executive*
Julie Odams [ https://www.lgo.org.uk/information-centre/news/2025/mar/new-chief-executive-for-the-local-government-and-social-care-ombudsman ]
We’re delighted to have appointed Julie Odams as our new Chief Executive Officer.
Julie has been heading up our Policy and Communications team for the last two years and will replace our current CEO, Nigel Ellis, when he retires in early summer.
Appointed following an open recruitment campaign, Julie is looking forward to leading us as we aim to enhance our role in driving improvements in the sectors we oversee and for the increasing number of people who come to us for help.
Read more [ https://www.lgo.org.uk/information-centre/news/2025/mar/new-chief-executive-for-the-local-government-and-social-care-ombudsman ]
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Our talk at the SEN Law conference 
Richard Bailey [ https://www.lgo.org.uk/assets/attach/6192/Triennial-Review-2021-2024-FINAL.pdf ]
Our assistant ombudsman, Richard Bailey recently spoke to professionals who work with children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) at key charity, IPSEA’s annual law conference.
Here’s what he said:
“”I was pleased to have the opportunity to speak at the IPSEA SEN Law Conference in London earlier this month. I spoke about the trends we see in our casework for SEND complaints and in particular the significant rise in complaints we have seen in the past two years.”
“”I also highlighted our recommendation to Government to expand our powers to enable us to investigate complaints about schools for SEND complaints. We believe the current system of redress is fragmented and causes unnecessary frustration for parents and carers. We continue to argue we should be able to investigate ‘beyond the school gates’.””
Read our Triennial Review [ https://www.lgo.org.uk/assets/attach/6192/Triennial-Review-2021-2024-FINAL.pdf ]
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*Standards and Conduct in Local Authorities: our view*
The government consultation on how the standards and conduct of councillors [ https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/strengthening-the-standards-and-conduct-framework-for-local-authorities-in-england ] should be addressed closed on the 26th February 2025. As an organisation with oversight of local government, and a role in conduct complaints, we contributed our views to the consultation.
The consultation covered the introduction of measures to strengthen the standards and conduct regime in England and ensure consistency of approach amongst councils when investigating serious breaches. It suggested a mandatory code, a requirement for councils to have a Standards Committee, the power to suspend and disqualify councillors and the creation of an appeals body.
We believe that effective, consistent and appropriate conduct by councillors is essential for good local democracy and effective public services. Whilst there is no doubt that the vast majority of England’s approximately 17,000 local councillors operate in line with their organisation’s and the Local Government Association’s voluntary Codes of Conduct, we think it is essential that local and then (where necessary) independent investigation is available to maintain public confidence.
We think there should be a mandatory, and single, Code of Conduct for councillors across England as it would give the public clear and consistent expectations of the standards that should be observed. We also believe that councils should be required to have a Standards Committee and that the Committee should have the power to suspend councillors for serious conduct breaches. We also think there should be a national, independent appeals body to support consistency, transparency and impartiality.
The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government is currently considering the responses to the consultation. We will continue to contribute to discussions on this important area and you can follow developments on the government website [ https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/strengthening-the-standards-and-conduct-framework-for-local-authorities-in-england ].
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*Free resources to support councils’ adoption of our Complaint Handling Code*
Complaint file
We have published free training resources for local authorities to support them to adopt our Complaint Handling Code successfully. 
We ran a webinar for local councils to explain how to use these learning resources. The webinar was attended by more than 200 delegates from 114 local authorities in England.
Many councils in England have already adopted the Complaint Handling Code into local complaints policies and many more are working towards this. We will start applying the Code in our casework from April 2026 and will be updating information we give to the public about raising complaints over the coming year.
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Good administrative practice guide relaunched
We have reissued our guidance on the principles of good administrative practice for councils. We have issued this guidance since 1993 and use it as a benchmark for the standards we expect when we investigate complaints about councils.
Six core principles sit at the heart of this document and they explain what we mean by good administration. Our investigations frequently shine a light on the importance of getting the basics right, and on the impact for people’s lives when this goes wrong.
The guidance is issued under our powers to provide guidance to organisations we investigate under section 23(12A) of the 1974 Local Government Act following consultation. We consulted with a range of representative bodies on the updated guidance before publishing it on our website. 
Read the guidance [ https://www.lgo.org.uk/information-centre/information-for-organisations-we-investigate/councils/guidance-notes/principles-of-good-administrative-practice ]
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*Feedback from local authorities*
In 2024 we asked local authorities to give us feedback on our work through a survey. We received 61 responses to the survey.
We asked authorities to tell us about the impact of our investigations. 75% of those who responded said the Ombudsman’s recommendations were proportionate and in line with our guidance. 86% of respondents said our recommendations had a medium to large impact on improving local public services. 77% of respondents said the Ombudsman had a medium to high impact on national policy and media.
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Local elections 2025
Polling station
Many authorities across England will be holding their local elections in May.
Over the coming weeks this will have implications for many people involved in local government. During this ‘pre-election period’ organisations should not publish any material which might affect the outcome of an election, or compete for media space with those campaigning.
For us, this means that we will not be publishing any critical press releases or public reports about those authorities that are holding an election.
We’ll still be issuing our weekly decision bulletins and newsletters as usual.
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News you may have missed
* Croydon woman’s back broken by home-help device when council withdrew care funding [ https://www.lgo.org.uk/information-centre/news/2025/mar/croydon-woman-s-back-broken-by-home-help-device-when-council-withdrew-care-funding ]
* Islington woman scared she would be “left to die” due to council inaction [ https://www.lgo.org.uk/information-centre/news/2025/mar/islington-woman-scared-she-would-be-left-to-die-due-to-council-inaction ]
* Moors Park (Bishopsteignton) Ltd refuses to agree to Ombudsman recommendations [ https://www.lgo.org.uk/information-centre/news/2025/mar/moors-park-bishopsteignton-ltd-refuses-to-agree-to-ombudsman-recommendations ]
* Rochdale’s systemic SEND issues highlighted in Ombudsman report [ https://www.lgo.org.uk/information-centre/news/2025/mar/rochdale-s-systemic-send-issues-highlighted-in-ombudsman-report ]
* Ombudsman responds to NAO report on sustainability of local government finances [ https://www.lgo.org.uk/information-centre/news/2025/feb/ombudsman-responds-to-nao-report-on-sustainability-of-local-government-finances ]
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[ https://www.lgo.org.uk/training ]
[ http://www.lgo.org.uk/for-advisors/scrutiny ]
[ http://www.lgo.org.uk/information-centre/reports/annual-review-reports ]
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 http://www.lgo.org.uk [ http://www.lgo.org.uk/ ]
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