Nottinghamshire Council to begin ‘vigorously’ fighting complaints made to local government watchdog

The authority’s governance and ethics committee has met the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman in response to a number of recent decisions made against the council.

This included a parent getting £200 in compensation over a complaint about nursery fees and charges, as well as several upheld decisions over social care in 2021 and 2022.

Most recently, the authority was also ordered to pay a parent nearly £3,000 after she was not moved onto the most beneficial travel allowance scheme when transporting her disabled child to school.

The committee requested the meeting to discuss the decisions with the watchdog and to find ways to fight verdicts it does not agree with.

The most recent committee heard the meeting was “useful and productive” and will lead to a change of approach at the authority.

Coun Philip Owen, committee chairman, attended the watchdog meeting with his deputy Coun Johno Lee and senior council officers.

Coun Owen said: “We, as a council, need to challenge the projected and proposed decisions before they are actually finalised.

“I think we have perhaps been hesitant, reluctant, to challenge the findings at an earlier stage, but we’re going to do that now.

“If we disagree, we’re going to challenge vigorously and say we don’t agree.”

He said the council does not always need to accept the outcome of complaints, such as having to pay financial compensation.

The committee heard service directors will also be given oversight of all decisions relating to their departments that were upheld against the council, meaning they “own that decision” and can act upon it.

Coun Owen said: “The ombudsman representative said we need to ensure we document things, because, if we haven’t got evidence, the ombudsman will believe the complainant as opposed to us.”

A council report reveals 73 per cent of all complaints made against the authority are upheld by the watchdog, marginally below the national county council average of 77 per cent.

However, just 5 per cent of all complaints were successfully remedied before action from the ombudsman was required, below 8 per cent average for comparable authorities and is an area the committee said the council must work on.