This month we celebrated our 50th birthday. While taking a moment to reflect on our journey with our staff, we’ve been far from resting on our laurels.
On 8 February 1974, the Local Government Act became law. Part of this new law created the Commission for Local Administration in England – the board that still runs our organisation today – with the job of investigating complaints about the administrative actions of local authorities.
Looking into the archives, some of the earliest newspaper reports of our investigations from later that year focused on disputes around planning applications for residential homes. Today, the most common types of complaint we receive are about education and children’s services, as well as adult social care.
An important year for us was 2009, when our powers were extended to look at complaints about independent adult social care providers. For the first time, people who paid for adult care services themselves could get an independent review of their complaint.
And now, 50 years to the day of our creation, we launched a new complaint handling code for councils. By showing what the gold standard for complaint handling should look like, it will be clearer for councils on how to provide great complaint services, and also help the public to know what they should expect.
It is another way we continue to innovate as we look ahead to the next milestone.
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