West Northamptonshire Council paid out nearly £50,000 due to complaints made to watchdog, report finds
West Northants Council (WNC) was ordered to pay out almost £50,000 over the last year to residents who complained about service failures to the local government watchdog.
More complaints about council services were made to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) in 2024/25 than in previous years, with education and children’s services grievances topping the list.
The ombudsman is a body that investigates complaints made against councils to help resolve issues in a range of areas, including adult social care, housing and planning decisions.
In total, the council’s central complaints team were contacted 130 times by the LGSCO in 2024/25, compared to 111 the previous year.
Not all of these contacts resulted in detailed investigations. The Ombudsman investigated 37 complaints about WNC and upheld 33 – compared with 21 upheld decisions in 2023/24.
WNC noted that its performance is largely in line with other local authorities, with indicators suggesting that the overall ‘uphold’ rate for complaints nationally has increased since 2023/24.
The council complied with all 19 outcomes recommended by the Ombudsman service, which range from issuing an apology to the complainant, providing further training for staff, undertaking policy review, or offering financial redress.
According to the report, WNC was ordered to pay out £48,251 to complainants to remedy its failures.
Around 60 percent of the complaints upheld were in education and children’s services, mainly relating to faults in special educational needs provision and delays in issuing care assessment plans. These also contributed to the majority of compensation payments issued by the authority.
The Ombudsman complaints annual review will be discussed at a WNC cabinet meeting, on Tuesday November 11.