This month we issued a special report looking at Human Rights issues - and highlighted some cases where councils did not do enough to consider the basic standards we should all expect when receiving local services.

Our Ombudsman, Michael King said: 

“People all too often think of Human Rights with ‘capital letters’ and in grand terms, but the basic expectations of how anyone should be treated – with fairness, respect and dignity – are just as applicable for people in their everyday lives as they are when major international events occur.

“We all have a right to expect these basic standards when we use public services. I want to raise people’s awareness about those rights, so people can more easily recognise when their basic rights and freedoms have been neglected."

Read the report

In November we held our Complaint Handler & Link Officer Conference. We run these events every two years to share good practice and learning from the complaints we investigate with local authorities.

The highlight of this year’s virtual conference was a discussion between our Ombudsman, Michael King and Housing Ombudsman, Richard Blakeway, as they set out their plans for a joint complaint handling code. This code will set far more explicit and challenging standards for council complaints processes in the future.

We also held workshops on Human Rights, remedying complaints and using data to improve services.

Our Ombudsman, Michael King was honoured to give the opening address at the Lawyers in Local Government (LLG) conference last month.

Members of LLG include councils' Heads of Legal Services and Monitoring Officers (senior council officers whose responsibilities include the operation of councils' constitutions, and the conduct of councillors and officers).

Mr King encouraged the delegates to use their powers more creatively to report our casework decisions within their authorities, to benefit from the learning these contain. He also shared some of our policy proposals for the wider role we could and should play in strengthening local accountability.