John Martin McDonnell: ...face, particularly to get the assessment and support they need. Members may remember that last September a report was released regarding the increase in the number of complaints from parents to the local government ombudsman. There was a 60% increase in the number of complaints upheld by the ombudsman from parents who were failing to get access to the services they desperately needed. As...
Lee Rowley: ...complaints procedure, and then the monitoring officer of the principal authority is contacted.[Official Report, 26 April 2023, Vol. 731, c. 6MC.] Finally, there is the opportunity to go to the local government ombudsman if there remain concerns. A number of points were raised about the approach of the town council to its precept raising and decisions that it is making about how to utilise...
John Martin McDonnell: ...struggle to maintain levels of support services for families in particular. I also found interesting the evidence that local authorities struggle to recruit educational psychologists. The recent local government ombudsman report shows that 70% of local authorities are now struggling to recruit EPs. The Government have recognised that; it is one issue that is being addressed in the future...
Rebecca Pow: ...to collect the garden waste. Local Authorities are independent bodies and are accountable to their electorate rather than to Ministers or government departments. Constituents should contact the Local Government Ombudsman if they believe their local authority is in breach of their statutory duties. We have recently taken steps to strengthen these powers. Measures introduced by the...
Fiona Bruce: ...in a matter in respect of which it has had no involvement. Neither does Cheshire East Council have power to scrutinise the precepts issued by town and parish councils within its Borough.” The local government ombudsman does not cover town and parish councils either, so how can residents get their serious concerns about management by a town council effectively addressed? I turn now to...
Rebecca Pow: ...financial reports and programmes of their works available to the public. As independent public bodies, IDBs are accountable to the communities they serve, as well as coming under the remit of the Local Government Ombudsman, the new Office for Environmental Protection, and they must comply with other public body duties e.g. around financial audits and accountancy, under the Local Audit...
Rosie Winterton: ...clause seeks to reinstate the Standards Board for England, which was abolished by the Localism Act 2011, but with the removal of referral to standards committees and the addition of appeal to the Local Government Ombudsman. New clause 84—Levelling-up mission: adult literacy— “(1) Each statement of levelling-up missions must include an objective relating to reducing geographical...
...clause seeks to reinstate the Standards Board for England, which was abolished by the Localism Act 2011, but with the removal of referral to standards committees and the addition of appeal to the Local Government Ombudsman.
Baroness Barran: ..., and we will outline them in our updated guidance for parents, and make them clear in the new statutory guidance for local authorities, including that they should follow the recommendations of the Local Government Ombudsman. As I mentioned earlier, we are also exploring how we might further strengthen independent oversight of local authorities. On Amendment 95, I want to reassure the...
Lord Knight of Weymouth: ...and the cost of doing so. By consequence, I support Amendment 78. Finally, having listened carefully to the noble Lord, Lord Wei, on the previous grouping, and given the problem that the Local Government Ombudsman does not apply in the cases of parents of home-educated children, I think it is important that there is some kind of independent complaints service or ombudsman service. I shall...
Lord Wei: ...was no reason to do that. We have found out since then that this is a common occurrence. School attendance orders are used to silence families who kick up a fuss, because you cannot complain to the Local Government Ombudsman. I would love to hear from the Minister whether she disagrees and whether she has audited this kind of behaviour, but I hear that it is very common. Most families do...
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: ...at this. It seems to me that one key element of allowing academies to continue to have the freedoms that they enjoy is that there are some safeguards in the system. I would argue that having the Local Government Ombudsman as a backdrop would be one of the building blocks to allowing academies to continue to have their freedoms. Having said that, I hope we can give these and other...
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: ...of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman. My noble friend Lady Morris has said that the principle is important and that who does it is a secondary consideration. I accept that, but the Local Government Ombudsman has an important role to play, having had a tried and tested mechanism to remedy public complaints and to improve local services for nearly 50 years. The ombudsman’s...
Lord Davies of Brixton: ...can be hacked. The other point is a genuine, not a rhetorical, question for the Minister. Noble Lords have referred to decisions made by the local authority. Do they not come under the aegis of the Local Government Ombudsman in any event? Why do we need a special ombudsman service? If the Government are trying to cut back on bureaucracy, they can use the tried and tested system we already have.
Sam Tarry: ...deeper than partygate. The Prime Minister recently abused the ministerial code by redrafting it to reduce the potential sanctions for Ministers who break rules, and he was castigated by the former local government ombudsman, who served on the Committee on Standards in Public Life for five years until last December. Jane Martin went on to say that Mr Johnson had wrongly used a report by...
Daisy Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department intends to publish a response to the 2015 consultation to extend the remit of the Local Government Ombudsman to certain parish and town councils.
Will Quince: ...they can make a complaint under the local authority published complaints procedure. If someone is dissatisfied with the response they get from their local authority they can refer the matter to the Local Government Ombudsman. As part of the implementation of the government’s adoption strategy, achieving excellence everywhere, the department will work with regional adoption agencies to...
Lord Kamall: ...a potential issue that we have to address, which is drilling down into detail. One of the things that the CQC does is to look at aggregate numbers of complaints and concerns. Of course, there is a Local Government Ombudsman who looks at this issue as well. We are looking at ways where that works and where it does not work, and at how we could improve the system. This is all part of the...
Mary Foy: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of extending the remit of the Local Government Ombudsmen to include parish councils.
Toby Perkins: ...call on Derbyshire County Council to pause their plans and re-engage with residents in the affected areas, so that their views are heard and fully considered. I have also raised a complaint with the local government ombudsman regarding the consultation and the decision-making process. I would appreciate the Minister’s views on this situation and his saying whether or not he is satisfied...