Asked by: Lord Blunkett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they plan to take to ensure that an appeal against a Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman decision not to investigate a case is not reviewed by the same person who made the original decision.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman operates independently of central Government. Decisions about how complaints are investigated and reviewed fall solely within the Ombudsman’s statutory powers. This independence rightly keeps ministers at arm’s length from the complaints service the Ombudsman provides; a service that is an important element of the overarching accountability system for local government.
The Government has no plans to take any steps to dictate how the Ombudsman investigates or reviews individual cases.
Asked by: Lisa Smart (Liberal Democrat - Hazel Grove)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance her Department provides on the complaints and redress routes available to vulnerable patients who have concerns about the contractual terms of telecare services to which they are referred following hospital discharge.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
By law, all health and social care services must have a procedure for dealing efficiently with complaints, and anyone who has seen or experienced poor-quality care has the right to complain to the organisation that provided or paid for the care.
Telecare is not a mandatory service for local authorities, but many choose to provide a telecare service due to its benefits. Some local authorities will also fully or partially fund telecare for some individuals based on a financial assessment. Local authorities are responsible for the contractual terms of telecare services that they provide, therefore in the first instance an individual should consider making a complaint with the relevant local authority.
If an individual is not satisfied with the way a local authority has dealt with their complaint, they may escalate it to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman who can investigate individual concerns. The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman is the independent complaints lead for adult social care and investigates complaints from those receiving social care.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will take legislative steps to amend the Mobile Homes (Site Licensing) (England) Regulations 2014 to (a) require local authorities to review site licences and site licence conditions at regular intervals and (b) take representations from residents into account during those reviews.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Local authorities have extensive enforcement powers to take action against site owners who breach their site licence conditions. Local authorities can change the conditions attached to a site licence at any time, and may choose to consult residents on the licence conditions being proposed.
The government has published guidance for local authorities on site licensing duties.
Concerns about conditions on a site should be raised with the local authority. If those concerns are not addressed, a formal complaint should be made through the authority’s complaints process and can be taken further, where appropriate, through the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, local authorities have had departmental engagement, intervention or support due to concerns about park homes enforcement capacity or performance in each of the last five years.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Local authorities have extensive enforcement powers to take action against site owners who breach their site licence conditions. Local authorities can change the conditions attached to a site licence at any time, and may choose to consult residents on the licence conditions being proposed.
The government has published guidance for local authorities on site licensing duties.
Concerns about conditions on a site should be raised with the local authority. If those concerns are not addressed, a formal complaint should be made through the authority’s complaints process and can be taken further, where appropriate, through the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to improve consistency of local authority enforcement of park home site licensing and related protections for residents.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Local authorities have extensive enforcement powers to take action against site owners who breach their site licence conditions. Local authorities can change the conditions attached to a site licence at any time, and may choose to consult residents on the licence conditions being proposed.
The government has published guidance for local authorities on site licensing duties.
Concerns about conditions on a site should be raised with the local authority. If those concerns are not addressed, a formal complaint should be made through the authority’s complaints process and can be taken further, where appropriate, through the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.
Asked by: Lisa Smart (Liberal Democrat - Hazel Grove)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to reimburse or provide financial support to families of dementia patients who are required to pay for care while local authorities consider their applications for support.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Local authorities are responsible for assessing individuals’ care and support needs and, where eligible, for meeting those needs, as set out in the Care Act 2014.
The Care and Support Statutory Guidance states that “an assessment should be carried out over an appropriate and reasonable timescale taking into account the urgency of needs and a consideration of any fluctuation in those needs”. In addition, under Section 19 of the Care Act 2014, local authorities have powers to meet urgent needs for care and support without first carrying out a needs assessment or financial assessment.
There is no legal entitlement to reimbursement for care costs incurred prior to a local authority decision.
Individuals who are concerned about delays or decisions may raise these through local authority complaints processes or with the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.
Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to update guidance on handling complaints in children's social care.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Departmental officials will be meeting with the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman to better understand issues with the complaints process, but at present we are not planning to update the complaints guidance. We will, however, publish updated statutory guidance on advocacy services for children, who are making complaints, this year.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will make an assessment of the level of independence of the complaint review process within the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The legal powers underpinning the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman’s investigations are invested in the Ombudsman themselves and they have personal authority in the investigation of complaints. I therefore have no remit to interfere with the Ombudsman’s investigatory work.
This independence rightly keeps central government at arm’s length from the service that the Ombudsman provides to members of the public; a service which is an important element of the overarching local government accountability system.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what oversight exists to ensure that local authorities engage constructively with parents who raise concerns on (a) fair process and (b) statutory obligations.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Local authorities must engage constructively with parents when concerns arise about fair process or statutory duties. Oversight is provided through several mechanisms. First, parents can use the statutory three-stage complaints procedure for children’s services, which includes independent review. If they remain dissatisfied, they may escalate to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, which investigates maladministration and recommends remedies to ensure fairness and compliance.
Ofsted inspections also assess how effectively authorities involve parents and meet legal obligations.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many referrals have the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman received in each year since 2015 regarding Children’s Continuing Care.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to ensuring that all children, including those with complex health needs, receive appropriate care and support whenever and wherever they need it.
The National Framework for Children and Young People’s Continuing Care provides guidance to support integrated care boards and local authorities to assess and agree support for children whose needs cannot be met through existing universal or specialist services.
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) is an independent organisation. The PHSO publishes statistics on the referrals and complaints they receive categorised by organisation and not by type of service provided or age group. Therefore, the Department does not have access to the information requested.