Brighton & Hove City Council
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 141 complaints. Of these, 33 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 83 complaints. We investigated 25 complaints.
More about this data
Complaints dealt with – the total number of complaints and enquiries considered. It is not appropriate to investigate all of them.
Not for us – includes complaints brought to us before the council was given chance to consider it, or the complainant came to the wrong Ombudsman.
Assessed and closed – includes complaints where the law says we’re not allowed to investigate, or it would be a poor use of public funds if we did.
Investigated – we completed an investigation and made a decision on whether we found fault, or no fault.
Complaints upheld – we completed an investigation and found evidence of fault, or the organisation provided a suitable remedy early on.
Satisfactory remedies provided by the Council – the council upheld the complaint and we agreed with how it offered to put things right.
Compliance with Ombudsman recommendations – not complying with our recommendations is rare. A council with a compliance rate below 100% should scrutinise the complaints where it failed to comply and identify any learning.
Average performance rates – we compare the annual statistics of similar types of councils to work out an average level of performance. We do this for County Councils, District Councils, Metropolitan Boroughs, Unitary Councils, and London Boroughs.
For more information on understanding our statistics see Interpreting our complaints data.
Complaints dealt with
Not for us
Assessed and closed
Investigated
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Complaints upheld
We investigated 25 complaints and upheld 15.
60% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 80% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for Brighton & Hove City Council's population, this is 5.4 upheld decisions per 100,000 residents.
The average for authorities of this type is
5.3 upheld decisions per 100,000 residents. -
Satisfactory remedies provided by the Council
In 1 out of 15 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
7% satisfactory remedy rate.
This compares to an average of 10% in similar authorities.
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Compliance with Ombudsman recommendations
We recorded compliance outcomes in 11 cases.
In 11 cases we were satisfied with the actions taken.100% compliance rate with recommendations.
This compares to an average of 100% in similar authorities.
Annual letters
We write to councils each year to give a summary of the complaint statistics we record about them,
and their performance in responding to our investigations.
Reports
The Ombudsman has published the following reports against Brighton & Hove City Council
Find out more about reports
We issue reports on certain investigations, particularly where there is a wider public interest to do so. Common reasons for reports are significant injustice, systemic issues, major learning points and non-compliance with our recommendations. Issuing reports is one way we help to ensure councils are accountable to local people and highlighting the learning from complaints helps to improve services for everybody. Reports are published for 10 years.
Council told woman with dementia to change care home when her money ran out
Brighton and Hove City Council told a woman’s family she would have to move to a cheaper care home when her money ran out, without assessing whether moving would harm her, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has found.
Council places woman and autistic son in flat below nuisance neighbour
A mother and her autistic son were caused severe distress after they were placed in temporary accommodation below a neighbour who had previous warnings for anti-social behaviour, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has found.
Service improvements
The Council has agreed to make the following improvements to its services following an Ombudsman investigation.
Find out more about service improvements
When we find fault, we can recommend improvements to systems and processes where they haven’t worked properly, so that others do not suffer from these same problems in future. Common examples are policy changes; procedural reviews; and staff training. Service improvements from decisions are published for 5 years and those from reports are published for 10 years.
The latest 10 cases are listed below – click ‘view all’ to find all service improvements.
Case reference: 25 001 278
Category: Education
Sub Category: Alternative provision
- The Council agreed to review why there was a delay in setting up provision in early 2024and act to ensure this failure cannot be repeated on future cases.
- The Council agreed to review why there was a failure to ensure provision was made in July2024 and act to ensure this failure cannot be repeated on future cases.
- The Council agreed to review why there was a failure to ensure provision was made in February 2025 and act to ensure this failure cannot be repeated on future cases.
Case reference: 24 017 916
Category: Environment and regulation
Sub Category: Refuse and recycling
- •Remind relevant staff of the importance of effective complaint handling, following the process and adhering to timescales.
- •Review and amend its environmental policy as it offered. This should include setting up a clear criteria, clearer templates and letters, allowing challenge and considering the wording in the policy regarding the impact of actions.
Case reference: 24 017 530
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- The Council will issue guidance to its complaints team on how to correctly signpost housing complaints to the correct Ombudsman.
- The Council will ensure it has a process in place to monitor when there are delays in planned repair works being completed. The process should ensure the Council can follow up on any delays and ensure necessary works are completed within a reasonable timeframe.
Case reference: 24 017 256
Category: Education
Sub Category: School admissions
- The Council will remind the school admission panel clerks it employs that they must evidence the panel's decision-making in full, including the three-stage test at stage one and all the relevant factors the panel took into consideration at stage two.
Case reference: 24 015 366
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Charging
- Give clear information and train relevant staff about the importance of making at least one formal offer of a care placement which is available and affordable within service users agreed personal budgets.
- Remind relevant staff to formally notify service users and/or their families and representatives of care home placement offers, and the Council should record on its system the date and details of the offers made.
Case reference: 24 013 238
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will issue a reminder to staff about the importance of appropriate assessment of educational needs for an individual child when deciding if the Council needs to act under its section 19 duties to provide alternative education where a child is out of school.
Case reference: 24 011 749
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will remind staff in its Special Educational Needs and Disability team of the need to follow the Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations during the transferring in process, where it has adopted the Education, Health and Care Plan of a child or young person who has moved into the Council's area from another Council's area.
Case reference: 24 009 151
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- The Council has agreed to remind housing staff of the importance of keeping detailed and accurate records regarding complaints of disrepair in temporary accommodation, including details of the disrepair, notes of any site visits to confirm the situation and all liaison with the landlord and tenant.
Case reference: 24 008 004
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- • Share this decision with the relevant staff and remind them that they must communicate decisions on homelessness in writing.
Case reference: 23 015 251
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- The Council has agreed to update its case management standards to include guidance for officers on the Council’s duty to protect the property of homeless applicants and share this with relevant staff.
Last updated: 4 April 2015