LGSCO Complaints UK: How to Complain About a Council

At a glance

• Governing law: Local Government Act 1974, Part III (councils and other public bodies) and Part 3A (adult social care providers, in force since 1 October 2010).
• The test applied: maladministration in the exercise of an authority's administrative functions, or a failure in a service the authority was there to provide, causing injustice (section 26(1)).
• Complain to the organisation first: the Ombudsman must be satisfied the organisation has had a reasonable opportunity to investigate and respond before it will look at your case (section 26(5)); its own guidance treats up to 12 weeks as reasonable for a full response.
• Time limit: 12 months from the day you first had notice of the matter, with discretion for a Local Commissioner to accept a late complaint or waive the writing requirement (section 26B).
• Excluded by law: matters with a right of appeal to a tribunal or Minister, or a remedy through the courts (section 26(6)); plus Schedule 5 categories such as court and criminal proceedings, crime-investigation functions, certain commercial transactions, personnel matters, and school curriculum, conduct or discipline decisions.
• Council social housing: action a council takes as a registered social housing landlord is generally for the Housing Ombudsman, not the LGSCO — though the LGSCO can still step in if you would not qualify to complain under the Housing Ombudsman's own scheme.
• Cost: free to use; no solicitor required.
• Typical remedies: apology, reconsideration, service improvement, and financial payments the Ombudsman describes as symbolic rather than compensatory — commonly £100 to £300, rising to around £1,000 for severe or prolonged distress.
• Name: renamed the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman in 2017 to reflect its social care jurisdiction. Wales has a separate body, the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales.

What the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman does

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman is an independent public body, established under the Local Government Act 1974, that investigates complaints against councils in England and certain other bodies carrying out local public functions. It is not a court and it is not a regulator — it cannot fine an organisation, quash a decision the way a judge can, or award compensation on the same basis a court would.

Its job under Part III of the 1974 Act is to look at whether an authority's administrative functions were affected by maladministration, or whether there was a failure in a service the authority was there to provide, and whether that caused the person complaining an injustice. In 2017 the organisation changed its name from the Local Government Ombudsman to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, reflecting the separate jurisdiction — added by the Health Act 2009 and now sitting in Part 3A of the 1974 Act — to investigate complaints about adult social care that people arrange or fund for themselves.

This guide covers England only. Wales has its own service, the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales.

Who and what it covers

Councils and other public bodies (Part III)

Part III of the 1974 Act covers all local authorities in England, other than town and parish councils, along with a range of other bodies exercising local public functions — including police and crime bodies and school admission appeal panels. The matters it can look into are set out in section 26(1): alleged or apparent maladministration connected with an authority's administrative functions, and alleged or apparent failure in a service the authority was there to provide.

Adult social care providers (Part 3A)

Part 3A, inserted by the Health Act 2009 and in force since 1 October 2010, gives the Ombudsman power to investigate complaints from people who arrange or fund their own adult social care — including direct payment recipients — about registered care providers carrying out a regulated activity. This closed a gap that had existed for people paying privately for care, who previously had no independent complaints route equivalent to the one available to council-funded care recipients. By law, all social care providers must have their own complaints procedure that you can ask to see.

What falls outside its jurisdiction

The tribunal, Minister and court exclusion

Section 26(6) of the 1974 Act says the Ombudsman must not investigate any action where the person affected has, or had, a right of appeal to a tribunal, a right of appeal to a government Minister, or a remedy through court proceedings — unless it is satisfied that, in the particular circumstances, it would not be reasonable to expect you to use that route instead. If you start court proceedings after the Ombudsman has begun investigating on that basis, it must stop.

Schedule 5: specific excluded matters

Section 26(8) separately excludes anything described in Schedule 5 to the Act. The main categories are:

• The commencement or conduct of civil or criminal proceedings before any court.
• Action taken by, or on behalf of, a local policing body in connection with investigating or preventing crime.
• Certain commercial and contractual transactions of an authority — for example running public passenger transport, a dock or harbour undertaking, entertainment venues, industrial estates, or markets (though this exclusion does not cover the acquisition or disposal of land).
• Personnel matters: appointments, removals, pay, discipline, superannuation and similar staff issues.
• The conduct, curriculum, internal organisation, management or discipline of a school or other maintained educational establishment — except where the complaint concerns special educational needs.
• Action a council takes in its capacity as a registered provider of social housing, in connection with its housing activities or the management of leasehold dwellings it owns.

That last point matters if your complaint is really about the council as your landlord — a repair backlog, an anti-social behaviour response, or a rent or service charge dispute in a council tenancy. Those matters are for the Housing Ombudsman instead. The LGSCO can only step into that space in narrow circumstances: where the complaint concerns social housing management and the person affected would not be eligible to complain to the Housing Ombudsman under its own statutory scheme.

Before you complain: the organisation gets first chance

Section 26(5) of the 1974 Act says that before investigating, the Ombudsman must satisfy itself that the matter has been brought, by or on behalf of the person affected, to the notice of the organisation concerned, and that the organisation has had a reasonable opportunity to investigate and respond — unless it decides it would not be reasonable to expect that in the circumstances.

In practice, this means going through the council or care provider's own complaints procedure first, including every stage it offers. Most councils and care providers run two or more stages, each handled by a more senior person than the last. The Ombudsman's own guidance treats up to 12 weeks as a reasonable period to allow for a full response to a complaint, and it will not usually take on a case if you contact it at the same time as, or shortly after, first complaining to the organisation. A separate statutory procedure applies to complaints about children's social care, and the Ombudsman normally expects that route to be completed first too.

Experience shows this step often works: the Ombudsman's own figures suggest roughly two-thirds of people who complain to a council or care provider do not need to come back to it afterwards.

The 12-month time limit

Under section 26B of the Local Government Act 1974, a complaint must normally be made in writing within the "permitted period" — 12 months beginning with the day the person affected first had notice of the matter. If the person affected has since died without knowing about the matter, the 12 months runs from when their personal representative, or the complainant, first had notice instead.

A Local Commissioner has discretion to disapply either requirement — the need for it to be in writing, or the 12-month limit itself — for a particular complaint. In practice, that discretion is used sparingly, so it is sensible to complain to the council or care provider as soon as a problem arises and escalate to the Ombudsman promptly once their internal process has run its course.

How to complain — step by step

1. Complain to the organisation first. Put your concerns in writing to the council or care provider, keep copies of everything, and follow every stage of its own complaints procedure through to the end. Ask it to confirm in writing when that process has concluded.
2. Gather your evidence. Collect the documents that support what happened — letters, emails, assessment reports, care plans, decision notices — and write a clear timeline. Identify the specific actions, or inaction, you believe were wrong, and the impact they had on you.
3. Submit your complaint to the Ombudsman. You can complain online, by phone or by post, explaining who you are complaining about, what went wrong, what harm or loss it caused, and what outcome you are looking for. If you are complaining on someone else's behalf, get their written permission first unless there are exceptional circumstances.
4. Wait for the initial response. The Ombudsman aims to acknowledge your complaint within 5 working days and to tell you whether it will investigate within 20 working days.
5. Engage with the investigation. If it decides to investigate, it must give the organisation a fair chance to comment on the allegations, and may contact you for more detail. Respond promptly and stay focused on the facts and the impact on you.
6. Receive the decision. Most investigations reach a final decision within about three months, though complicated cases can take longer. If fault is found, the decision sets out recommendations; if it is not upheld, the decision explains why.

Worked example: Priya's care assessment complaint

Priya, a fictional example, cared for her elderly mother, who was privately funding her own home care after a council needs assessment concluded she did not qualify for local authority funding. Priya believed the assessment had been carried out too quickly and had not properly considered her mother's mobility needs.

She first wrote to the council, following its two-stage complaints procedure, and received a final response ten weeks later that did not change the outcome. Twenty-two weeks after first raising the issue, she complained to the Ombudsman, attaching her original letter, the council's final response, and her mother's GP letter describing her mobility needs. Because she complained well within the 12-month window and had completed the council's process first, the LGSCO was able to accept the case and open an investigation.

What remedies look like

If it finds fault causing injustice, the Ombudsman does not have the power to overturn a properly made decision the way a court or tribunal could — it is not an appeals body. What it can do is recommend that the organisation put things right. Its Guidance on Remedies sets out a sequence: an effective apology first, then a reconsideration of the flawed decision or a change to how the organisation works, moving to a financial remedy only where there is still unremedied injustice.

Financial remedies for distress are described as a moderate, symbolic sum rather than compensation in the court sense — typically £100 to £300, rising to around £1,000 where the distress was severe or prolonged. Where a decision itself was flawed, the more usual remedy is for the organisation to retake it properly, not for the Ombudsman to substitute its own answer.

When an organisation won't comply

The Ombudsman has no legal power to force a council or care provider to carry out its recommendations, but in practice it is very rare for one to refuse. If a council does not accept a proposed settlement, the Ombudsman issues a formal public interest report naming the council, which must be published and advertised in the local press covering its area. If the council still does not act, a further report follows, and if it continues to refuse it must publish a statement in a local newspaper explaining why. A care provider that fails to carry out recommendations can instead be required to publish an Adverse Findings Notice.

If you disagree with the outcome

There is no formal right of appeal against an Ombudsman decision, but you can ask for a review. To succeed, you generally need to show either that important evidence the decision relied on was inaccurate, or that there is new, relevant information that was not available when the decision was made — simply disagreeing with the conclusion is not enough. Review requests are best made in writing, ideally within a month of the decision, and a reviewer aims to respond within 20 working days. The review is not a reinvestigation: the reviewer will not simply give different weight to the same evidence.

Formal public interest reports are not open to this review process at all — the Ombudsman's own guidance says they can only be challenged by judicial review. Beyond a review, the only further route for any LGSCO decision is judicial review in the Administrative Court, part of the High Court. That is a specialist, time-limited and potentially costly process, so it is worth thinking carefully about whether it is proportionate before pursuing it.

What to do next

1. Check you have exhausted the organisation's own process. Confirm in writing that the council or care provider's complaints procedure has concluded before you approach the Ombudsman.
2. Work out your 12-month deadline. Count from the day you first had notice of the problem, not from when it started or from your last piece of correspondence about it.
3. Pull your evidence together before you submit. A clear timeline with the key documents attached helps the Ombudsman decide quickly whether to investigate.
4. Be specific about the injustice and the outcome you want. Explain what harm the fault caused you in practical terms, and what you would like the organisation to do to put it right.
5. Check whether this is really a Housing Ombudsman matter. If your complaint is about a council acting as your landlord, the Housing Ombudsman is usually the right body instead.
6. Take advice early if the situation is serious or urgent. If you are weighing the Ombudsman against court proceedings, or the fault has caused significant harm, speaking to a legal adviser before you commit to one route can help you avoid losing options unnecessarily.

This guide provides general information about complaining to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman in England. It is not legal advice and is not a substitute for advice tailored to your specific circumstances. The law described was accurate as at August 2026 and is subject to change — always check GOV.UK, legislation.gov.uk and the Ombudsman's own website for the current position.

Last reviewed: August 2026 by a non-practising solicitor · Next review due: August 2027 or on legislative change.