Councils involved in partnership working must define which organisation will handle complaints, the Local Government Ombudsman for England has warned. In a special report on local partnerships and citizen redress, Tony Redmond highlighted the difficulties members of the public often have in knowing who they should complain to, and how. The report found councils often do not have proper, clear procedures and protocols for handling complaints about services delivered through a partnership of providers, such as housing regeneration. The Ombudsman issued the report after a series of complaints that involved a myriad of public bodies such as police authorities and the Commission for Social Care Inspection. He also warned if local authorities do not get to grips with the issue, central government could impose a ‘super-regulator'. ‘The problems involved in handling complaints where there is a partnership of service providers need to be addressed urgently. ‘Agreeing a single reference point is as good as we can ask for. Given partnership working is going to become a bigger part of the landscape we all need to get ahead on this.' The full report can be found at www.lgo.org.uk
