According to the Local Government Ombudsman’s yearly report, families in the South East mostly file complaints about education and children’s services provided by their local government.
It stated the area accounted for 35% of the inquiries it received from the people in the region, compared to the national average of 27%.
In Surrey, 141 complaints were upheld across all levels of government, 76 in Kent, 36 in West Sussex, and 16 in Medway.
According to the ombudsman, several councils did not respond to its recommendations promptly, with one in every five missing deadlines to correct mistakes.
According to Amerdeep Somal, local government and social care ombudsman, “What we’re seeing in the majority of cases isn’t a lack of care or an inability to take responsibility for what has gone wrong, but a sector struggling to cope.”
“Almost all councils want to comply with our recommendations, accept responsibility when things go wrong, and provide good services to residents, and our 99.5% compliance rate indicates this is the case.”
“But all too often resources and finances prevent them from doing so as swiftly as they should.”
Eight percent of all complaints received were upheld, 6% from the previous year.
