New Rights for People with Social Housing Complaints
From the start of this month, more people than ever before have the right to raise concerns about how councils manage social housing - even if they are not a tenant themselves.
Previously, there was a gap in the system. If you were not renting a council property, you had no independent body you could turn to if you had a complaint about how social housing in your area was being managed. This left many people with no way to challenge decisions or raise concerns.
That has now changed. Under the Renters' Rights Act, we can now look into social housing management complaints from anyone, not just tenants.
If you are a tenant of a council property and want to complain about the council as your landlord, the Housing Ombudsman continues to handle those cases as before.
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New council complaints data launched
We have refreshed our Council Performance pages to give you even more useful information on council complaints we’ve looked at.
To coincide with publishing last year’s (2025-26) complaints data for every local council, we’ve redesigned how we show ‘Service Improvements’ that councils agree to.
Service improvements are a crucial way in which we make our investigations have the biggest value to everyone who uses their local council services.
Where we find problems that are more than one-off mistakes, we make recommendations for councils to make improvements to their wider services. Usually, these are things like reviewing how they make future decisions on the same issue, changing faulty policies, or training staff on the right things to do. These try to prevent the same problems affecting other people.
Now visitors to our council performance pages can see a simple chart breaking down the service improvements councils have made – by service area – as well as more insight into the background of those complaints. Plus, local councillors and oversight bodies should enjoy our new option to export the raw data behind the improvements to compare and contrast.
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Learning from Complaints: Reflections from the Homecare Association Conference
Our Head of Policy and Communications recently joined a panel at the Homecare Association Conference to discuss our work with homecare providers: people who deliver vital care to individuals in their own homes.
The key message was that organisations should look beyond individual errors when something goes wrong. A single complaint is rarely the whole story. More often, it points to something deeper: a poor process, inadequate record keeping, or gaps in staff training. By identifying these underlying issues, providers can make meaningful improvements to the quality of care they deliver.
Speaking at the conference, we encouraged delegates to treat complaints not as problems to be managed, but as genuine opportunities to learn and improve.
We also shared our Complaints Confident Toolkit, a practical resource developed specifically for care providers to help them build an open, responsive complaints culture.
Welcoming the Ethics and Integrity Commission Review
The Ethics and Integrity Commission is reviewing the public sector ombudsman system, and we think this is a significant opportunity to update a system that hasn't seen major changes for nearly 60 years.
We submitted written evidence to the Commission in April, setting out our views on how the ombudsman system could be strengthened to better serve the public. Our submission covered a wide range of issues, including expanding our jurisdiction, having complaint standards authority powers, and how important it is to maintain our independence.
We now look forward to taking the next step in that process. Today we are participating in oral hearings to speak directly to the Commission about its work and the improvements that could be made to its role and powers. This face-to-face engagement presents an important opportunity to bring our casework evidence to life and make the case for reform.
Demand for our services has reached unprecedented levels, and the need for a modern, properly equipped ombudsman has never been greater. The oral hearings will allow us to make that case directly to those with the power to recommend change.
Having our say: how we're informing change
One of our most important jobs is responding to government proposals for change, making sure the voices of the people we hear from every day are part of shaping new policies.
Recently, we shared our views on plans to reform SEND support - that's the system designed to help children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities. We believe this reform is urgently needed. In recent years, we've seen a significant rise in the number of complaints we receive about SEND services, and we're finding that more and more of these complaints are justified.
Behind every complaint is a child or young person whose needs aren't being met, and a family under enormous strain. We've made clear that the current system is in serious difficulty and that real change is needed. You can read our full response on our website.
We've also given our views on three other important consultations:
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Adoption support: looking at how to improve support for adoptive families
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Fostering: examining how allegations of abuse against foster carers are assessed and handled
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Transition from children's to adult health and social care: exploring what happens when young people with health or care needs move into adulthood, and how that process can be made smoother
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