Department for Communities and Local Government - Complaints ...

From the Ombudsman Dame Julie Mellor DBE
Sir Bob Kerslake
Permanent Secretary & Head of the Civil Service
Department for Communities and Local Government
Eland House
Bressenden Place
London
SW1E 5DU
14 March 2013
»
Dear Sir Bob,
PERFORMANCE OF THE DEPARTMENT FOR COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN
2012
As you will be aware, I am writing to all Permanent Secretaries to provide them with an
annual statement about complaints PHSO received about their Departments in the
calendar year 2012.
I hope that you will find this information useful when reviewing their performance. PHSO
will be sending copies of these letters to the Chairs of the relevant Select Committees to
help inform Parliament’s scrutiny work and we will be putting these letters in the public
domain in April 2013.
This letter contains information about the complaints PHSO received about your
Department and its agencies in 2012.
1. Role of Departmental Boards
Our role as the last resort for complaints about public services means that we have unique
information about the public’s experience. Complainants often tell us that their
motivation for complaining is to ensure that the same mistakes do not happen again. It is
therefore concerning that our research has shown that 64% of those who complain do not
expect anything to change as a result.
Complaints are a valuable source of free information about the public’s experience of the
services you provide. The best performing organisations use this feedback to draw insight
into areas where that service could be improved. When mistakes are made, which
inevitably they will be, it is how they are dealt with that determines whether the public’s
confidence in those services is restored. We recommend that departments and agencies

consider, at Board level, questions regarding numerical trends, the issues complained
about and acted upon and the customer experience of complaining.
Number of complaints
o Are there any trends in the number of complaints you have received this year or in
comparison to previous years
o What do you think are the reasons for these trends and what action do you need to
take
Learning from complaints
o Are there any trends in the subject of complaints you have received
o What do you think are the reasons for these trends What have you learnt from
complaints, customer feedback and feedback from Parliament’s Ombudsman
o What have you improved about your services and administration as a result
o What further action do you need to take to address any outstanding issues
identified by complaints
Experience of complaining
o What are your service standards for complaint handling What is your performance
against those standards
o What are your customers and Parliament’s Ombudsman telling you about public
experiences of making a complaint
o When did you last audit your complaint handling and what were the findings and
recommendations For example, which parts of the Cross Government Complaints
Forum standards do you meet
o What action has been taken or needs to be taken as a result
2. Key issues from our casework
Statistical trends
The number of complaints we received about the Department for Communities and Local
Government increased by 10% to 132 in 2012. Over 60% of these related to the Planning
Inspectorate which saw a 4% increase. The number of complaints about the Department
accepted for investigation fell from 5 in 2011 to 3 in 2012. We investigated 5 complaints
about the Department in 2012 compared to 1 in 2011, all of which were upheld.
Casework issues – learning from complaints and the experience of complaining
We investigated 4 complaints about the Planning Inspectorate - all were about the
Inspectorate’s decision to routinely refuse to pay compensation for the impact of their
mistakes on service users. This led to the users themselves bearing the impact of the
Inspectorate’s mistakes, unless they approached us. We found that decision at odds with
our Principles and Treasury guidance. In October 2012 we published a short report about

those complaints: A false economy – Investigations into how people are recompensed for
government mistakes.
Working with PHSO
The Planning Inspectorate responded positively to our investigations. They compensated
the four complainants and considered another 14 compensation claims. They made
payments totalling £312,243 plus interest. They also changed their approach to providing
compensation. However, we also carried out two interventions in relation to complaints
about the Homes and Communities Agency, and the Agency missed our deadlines both for
accepting our findings and recommendations and in complying with them.
3. Statistics
I have attached in an annex some statistical information about the Department and its
agencies for 2012.
We hope that you find these comments useful. We would be very happy of course to
elaborate on the issues we have raised if you found this helpful.
Yours sincerely,
Dame Julie Mellor, DBE
Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

Annex: Statistical information about complaints
received by the Ombudsman about the Department
for Communities and Local Government – 2012
Complaints
received
Complaints
resolved
through
intervention
Complaints
accepted for
investigation
Investigated
complaints
reported on
Uphold rate
132 0 3 5 100%
Annex: Statistical information about complaints received by the Ombudsman about the Department for Communities and Local Government – 2012 1

Themes of investigations
The investigations we reported on concerned the following issues about complaint handling
(one investigation report can contain several themes):
4
1
Inadequate financial remedy
Failure to ensure recommendations implemented
Investigation resolutions
In 2012 we made 11 recommendations for remedy to organisations accountable to the Total: Department 5 for
Communities and Local Government. All of these remedies were accepted by the organisation concerned.
A breakdown of the remedies by type is set out below. The total value of the financial remedies provided
in 2012 was £54,223.16.
3
2
2
1
1
1
1
Apology
Compensation payment: non financial loss
Compensation payment: financial loss
Systemic remedy - body to conduct own review
Systemic remedy - changes to policy or procedure
Systemic remedy - staff training
Action to remedy (putting things right)
Total: 5
3
2
2
1
1
1
1
Apology
Compensation payment: non financial loss
Compensation payment: financial loss
Systemic remedy - body to conduct own review
Systemic remedy - changes to policy or procedure
Systemic remedy - staff training
Action to remedy (putting things right)
2 Annex: Statistical information about complaints received by the Ombudsman about the Department for Communities and Local Government – 2012

Compliance
Organisations accountable to the Department complied with 11 recommendations for remedy during 2012.
Of those, 9 (82%) were complied with by the target date for compliance agreed between PHSO and the
organisation concerned. A breakdown of the performance against target date for each organisation is
detailed in the following table:
Recommendations Total
Organisation In target Not in target Total In target % in target
Homes and
Communities Agency
0 2 2 0 0%
Planning Inspectorate 9 0 9 9 100%
Total 9 2 11 9 82%
Annex: Statistical information about complaints received by the Ombudsman about the Department for Communities and Local Government – 2012 3

If you would like this research summary in a different
format, such as Daisy or large print, please contact us.
Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
Telephone: 0345 015 4033
Textphone: 0300 061 4298
Email: phso.enquiries@ombudsman.org.uk
www.ombudsman.org.uk
Millbank Tower
Millbank
London
SW1P 4QP
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4 Annex: Statistical information about complaints received by the Ombudsman about the Department for Communities and Local Government – 2012