MORE than £40,000 has been paid out in settlements after complaints were made about social care in Lancashire.

Figures show enquiries made to the Local Government Ombudsman, which is the final stage for complaints about councils and adult social care providers, rose by 12 per cent to 77 last year with a total of £43,907 paid out by Lancashire County Council.

There were 699 statutory complaints made about social care last year - an increase of 11 per cent compared the year before, according to a council report. Just under half were to do with social work practice including assessments.

The statistics show complaints in adult social care have risen by almost 15 per cent with complex joint complaints with the NHS rising by 57 per cent while statutory complaints in children’s social care rose by four per cent from 211 to 220 in 2016/17.

Most of the complaints made about adult social care were upheld or partially upheld while about a third were withdrawn at an early stage of the complaints procedure.

Louise Taylor, the council’s corporate director of operations and delivery, said the number of social care complaints represents one per cent of active adult and children’s social care cases.

She said: “We want to provide a good quality service to everyone we work with.

“What people think of our services is important to us, so as a council we encourage the people who use social care, and all our services, to let us know their views.

“This includes when we may have fallen short of expectations and the high standards we set.

“We’ve brought in a number of changes to our adult and children’s social care services, which should help to improve the services.

“We’ve already started making changes, including bringing in better processes and procedures, and providing extra training for staff and managers.

"One of the key issues is making sure we communicate properly with people using our care services, their families, and the NHS.”

In 2016/17 the council spent £5,817 on investigating complaints compared to £18,811 the year before.

They paid out £34,727 in settlements including debt write-offs - a significant increase compared with the £550 paid out in 2015/16 for complaints about adult social care.

More than £9,000 was paid out in settlements after complaints to the ombudsman about children’s social care compared to £6,275 the year before.