New permanent Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman announced

Amerdeep Somal has been named as the preferred candidate for the role of the permanent Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, taking up the position in January 2024 from the current interim Ombudsman Paul Najsarek.

The Ombudsman (LGO) is an independent body that looks at complaints about councils and some other authorities and organisations in England, including education admissions appeal panels and adult social care providers.

The provisional appointment will be reviewed by the parliamentary Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Select Committee in September and confirmed by Royal Warrant later this year.

Local government minister Lee Rowley wrote in a letter to select committee chair Clive Betts: ‘Following an open competition conducted in line with the Governance Code for Public Appointments, I am pleased to inform you that the Secretary of State has selected Amerdeep Somal as the preferred candidate for this role. I am grateful for the support and advice your Clerks have provided to arrange a pre-appointment scrutiny hearing with Ms Somal on 18th September.’

Somal is current the Financial Regulators Complaints Commissioner and chief commissioner at the Data and Marketing Commission. She is also a judge of the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal and a former founding commissioner of the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

Somal is also the incoming board chair of the Law Society, a role she will take on in January 2024 alongside her position as Ombudsman, and is a current board member for the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.

Somal said: ‘I am delighted to be taking on this hugely important role and the leadership of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman organisation, which has extensive influence on the quality of council services and social care across the country.

‘The Ombudsman has a vital role both in ensuring that individual complaints are investigated – and wrongdoing put right – and in being a central part of the wider system that brings about fundamental change and improvement in these essential services. I look forward to taking on the Ombudsman position which helps to improve the quality of life for so many people, including some of society’s most vulnerable.’

Najsarek, the current interim Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, will remain in post as Ombudsman and chair of the Commission for Local Administration in England, the board that runs the LGO, until January 2024.

Image: Elliott Stallion

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