27 Week Delay With No End In Sight…
I spent all of 2025 fighting with the council, literally 14th January until Christmas. Stage 1 was delayed by months, stage 2 was compromised because the investigator asked the person being investigated for legal advice! I was about to give up but on the 7th January 2026 I submitted my LGSCO complaint. This really was a last chance saloon for me; I'm sure you can relate. They got back to me 8 days later to say I had got through the intake stage onto the assessment stage. Great! But here is the kicker: "We'll get back to you in 20-22 WEEKS, we'll contact you, don't contact us!". I waited patiently and 18 weeks later (May 2026), they had looked at my case and were going to investigate. My borough has 108,000 residents & how many people got to the LGSCO Investigation stage last year? SIX! If you are at this point it means something has gone catastrophically wrong in your life, you have had to battle through the local authorities Stage 1 & Stage 2 internal complaints process, The LGSCO Intake Stage, Assessment Stage & now you are in one of the world's most exclusive (and depressing) clubs which they can kick you out of anytime they like. But this still doesn't mean you will actually get an investigation! On 20th May they told me they had a backlog and didn't have anybody to assign my case to. "we'll get back to you in 8 weeks". Eight weeks went by and this morning I got an email. Sorry we still haven't started the investigation, we will get back to you in ANOTHER EIGHT WEEKS! I'm looking at 11th September 2026 & I read online they can take 24 weeks to investigate your case. Best case scenario for me is getting my case upheld in late February 2027. .... and don't forget this whole mess started with an email to the council on 14th January 2025! Lot of work for an apology letter and a symbolic payment of a few hundred quid.