Bromley Council has seen an increase in complaints and faces criticism from the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) regarding response times, according to the council's Annual Complaints Report & LGSCO Letter 2024/25.
The report, discussed at a recent Bromley Council Information Briefings meeting, highlights a 14% rise in complaints received by the council, excluding those handled directly by the Environment & Public Protection division. While the total financial consequences of upheld complaints decreased by 40% to £32,452.17, the Ombudsman has raised concerns about the timeliness of the council's responses to inquiries.
The report also stated that the publication of annual reports on social care complaints is a statutory requirement under the Local Authority Social Services and National Health Service Complaints (England) Regulations 2009 and the Children Act 1989 Representations Procedure (England) Regulations 2006. The council stated that it has an ethos of continuous improvement and is committed to using feedback from a variety of sources to learn, understand and take action to improve services.
Of the 173 referrals made to the Ombudsman, 43 became the subject of a full investigation, with 88% of those being upheld against the council. This is the first year in several that Bromley has had a higher upheld rate than the London average.
The primary area of concern identified by the Ombudsman is the timeliness of Bromley Council's responses to their enquiries. The council has acknowledged this issue and plans to undertake more targeted work with each service area to identify measures to improve performance.
Across the council, the most frequent cause for complaint was a lack of action (33.9%), with nearly half of those upheld.