The Communities and Local Government Committee calls on the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) to raise its game significantly. To deliver its role as independent arbitrator in disputes about unfair treatment or service failure by local authorities, the Local Government Ombudsman must tackle operational inefficiencies rapidly and conduct its own activities with credible effectiveness. The LGO must implement the changes identified by the recent Strategic Business Review. The LGO management's rationale for not publishing the 2011 Strategic Business Review in full was unconvincing and suggests there may be insufficient appetite for change within the LGO. The LGO must explain which findings from the Strategic Business Review will be implemented in full and in part, and provide a timetable for this. It also needs to set out the arrangements and timetable for appointing the new Chief Operating Officer (and their responsibilities). In future the LGO must be completely clear with all parties about the criteria it applies in order to determine whether cases are assigned to be resolved through a mediated process to achieve redress, or are allocated for full investigation and formal determination. Likewise the LGO must be transparent about the procedures that apply when any case is moved from one process to another - such as when mediation fails. The Government must explain how it will monitor the implementation of reorganisation at the LGO. An annual, independent staff survey should be reinstated at the LGO with results published.

In 2012, the Communities and Local Government Committee raised serious concerns about the performance of the Local Government Ombudsman [LGO] and called on it to raise its game significantly. The Committee recognises that over the past 12 months the LGO has made a concerted effort to act on its recommendations and become more accountable, efficient and transparent. There is still work to do, however, and the present report makes four recommendations aimed at allowing the LGO to continue to improve. These are: that the LGO publishes its staff survey in full, rather than summarising it as it did in 2012, that the LGO ensures that the timeliness of its decisions and its new case-handling quality control system are externally reviewed so that improvements in both are maintained, that at least one independent member be appointed to the board that oversees the LGO, and that the LGO appoint within 3 months an independent evaluator of complaints focused on its systems and services, not its decisions

Government response to HC 431, session 2012-13 (ISBN 9780215046819)

Government response to HC 431, session 2012-13 (ISBN 9780215046819). The Local Government Ombudsman's response published as HC 615, session 2012-13 (ISBN 9780215049520)