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Public Services Ombudsman for Wales Annual Letter 2019/20

Published: 14/10/2020

The Council’s performance in relation to complaints against services which were received and investigated by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales 2019/20 will be shared at Cabinet on Tuesday 20 October. 

A total of 61 complaints were made against the Council in 2019-20.  Although this is an increase of 11 on the previous year, a high percentage of complaints (80%) were either premature, out of jurisdiction or closed after initial consideration by the Ombudsman.   The number of complaints that required intervention by the Ombusdman reduced by 50% in 2019-20, from 16 to 8.

The Public Services Ombudsman (Wales) Act 2019 achieved Royal Assent in July 2019 which means Wales is the first Ombudsman’s office in the UK to have full and operational powers to drive systemic improvement of public services through investigations on our ‘own initiative’ and the Complaints Standards role.

During 2019-20, the Council engaged positively with the new Complaints Standards powers by submitting data to the Complaints Standards Authority (CSA) about the complaints handled by the Council. This will help us to learn more about the complaints landscape in Wales and drive improvement in public services for citizens in Wales. 

Councillor Billy Mullin, Cabinet Member for Corporate Management and Assets said:

“The report demonstrates our commitment to working with colleagues at the Ombudsman’s office to resolve customer complaints at an early stage wherever possible.  The Council’s policy for dealing with complaints was introduced in 2012. We will be reviewing this policy and implementing a new policy by the end of 2020-21.  This will include reviewing practices and procedures to ensure they comply with the model for public services in Wales; ensuring that the system used to record complaints is appropriate and promoting the new policy to reduce the number of premature complaints to the Ombudsman.”