Ombudsman releases complaints statistics for every local Authority in the North West Region

THE Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has released details of the complaints and enquiries made to it about every local Authority in the North West in the past year. As the apex of the local Government complaints system, the Ombudsman receives thousands of complaints and enquiries from people across England about the services they have received, after their local Authority has had the chance to put the situation right properly.

Every year the Ombudsman writes to each Authority with details of the complaints and enquiries it has received, and the decisions it has made about those complaints. These annual letters are published on the Ombudsman's website every July.

In the North West

► The Ombudsman received 12% of all complaints from the Region.

► The highest proportion of complaints in the Region are about Children and Education and Adult Social Care.

► The Ombudsman upheld 60% of cases it investigated in detail; that's higher than the 57% average.

► The Region also had the highest proportion of Adult Social Care complaints upheld in country (70% compared with a national average of 61%)

Michael King, Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, said:- "Each year we publish our annual data for Councils to help with transparency and improve services for people who live and work in any Council's area. We are pleased to continue our good working relationship with the vast majority of Authorities, and appreciate the willingness we see in implementing our remedies and learning from our investigations. But, we believe there is so much more Councils can do with the information we share every year; from these annual letters, our focus reports and public interest reports and I would call on Councillors, senior executives and anyone with an interest in scrutinising their local Authority to improve the services they provide."

Nationally, the Ombudsman registered 17,452 complaints and enquiries about local Authorities in 2017 to 2018, compared with 16,863 the previous year. Significantly, the proportion of complaints it has upheld has increased to 57%; up from 54% the previous year. The Ombudsman has also issued 40% more public interest reports about local Authorities in the same period.

With it increasingly challenging Authorities on how complaints can improve services more widely, as well as remedying individual injustices, the Ombudsman has made 21% more recommendations for service improvements this year. Recommendations to remedy personal injustice were also up 3% (from 2,428 to 2,566).

Across the country, the subject area with the highest proportion of complaints was Children and Education Services, which accounted for 19% of all complaints and enquiries received, followed by Adult Care Services, which accounted for 15%. The category with the highest uphold rate was benefits and taxation (70%) with planning seeing the lowest uphold rate at 41% of all detailed investigations upheld.

1 of the Ombudsman's main roles is to remedy injustice and to try to put people back into the position they were in had the fault not occurred. This year the Ombudsman made 3,622 recommendations to put things right. This figure includes a 21% increase in recommendations to improve services on top of remedying individual injustice since 2016 to 2017.

Beanstalk charity encourages families to keep reading through the summer holidays

AS the summer holidays begin for School children across the North West of England, national reading charity Beanstalk is calling on parents and children to continue reading through the 6 week break to prevent a decline in reading progress.

Beanstalk is a national literacy charity that transforms children's life chances by recruiting and supporting volunteers and placing them within local Primary Schools. These volunteers work with children who have either fallen behind with their reading, lack confidence, or struggle with their fluency, comprehension or vocabulary. During the summer the charity will be recruiting new volunteers to attend training sessions in Manchester and Liverpool to ensure enough reading helpers are ready to be placed in Schools from September for children that need extra help.

Ginny Lunn, Chief Executive Officer at Beanstalk, says:- "Children who having been making steady progress during term time and don't read during the 6 week break can find they really struggle when they return to School. This means they start the new academic year at a disadvantage, which can really knock their confidence and affect their learning. Our volunteers deliver 1 to 1 reading support to Primary School children that do fall behind, however, continuing to read regularly read at home really helps to 'exercise' their reading skills and ensures that when they do go back in September they have the confidence to continue with their reading."

Reading does not have to involve reading a book from cover to cover and the summer break is a time to get outdoors and be active, and there are many ways that reading can be incorporated into activities such as days out, sports and other hobbies. For example, reading the signs at the zoo, taking part in an outdoor treasure hunt, activities such as word searches and reading jokes on a rainy day! There are so many ways to encourage reading through the summer.

"We also support children participating in the Reading Agency's Summer Reading Challenge which is available across public libraries. It's a great way to encourage children to work towards reading goals in return for rewards. The important thing is to be guided by the children, to ensure that they are reading for pleasure and fun," adds Ginny.

Over the summer break Beanstalk will be busy recruiting volunteers who can help to support children who struggle with reading in Schools across the North West from September. Each volunteer spends 30 minutes, twice a week, with the same 3 children in a nearby Primary School for a whole academic year.

If you would be interested in becoming a reading helper in a local School, training sessions will be held on the following dates:-

► 22 August 2018 in Manchester.

► 30 August 2018 in Liverpool.

To book a place please get in touch with Beanstalk by completing an online application form at:- BeanstalkCharity.Org.UK, or call:- 0845 450 0307.

If you don't have the time to volunteer, but still would like to help rewrite the story for many struggling readers, please consider donating to Beanstalk to help deliver our programmes to more children in areas of greatest need.

If you dont know about this group, Beanstalk is a national charity that provides 1 to 1 literacy support to children who struggle with their reading.

The charity recruits, trains and supports volunteers to provide 1 to 1 literacy support in Primary Schools and early years settings.

Beanstalk's trained reading helpers provide 1 to 1 support to children aged 3 to 13 in a variety of ways, turning them into confident, passionate and able readers.

In the last School year the charity helped over 11,000 children across England, in over 1,400 Schools, with the help of over 3,000 reading helpers, ensuring children have the skills and confidence to reach their true potential.

By 2020 to 2021, Beanstalk, aims to help 30,000 children every year, with 8,000 volunteers.