Buckinghamshire County Council
Annual statistics
More about this data
Complaints upheld – complaints in which we found some fault in a council's actions. These include complaints where the council accepted fault before we investigated.
Compliance with Ombudsman recommendations – not complying with our recommendations is rare. An authority with a compliance rate below 100% should scrutinise the complaints where it failed to comply and identify any learning.
Satisfactory remedies provided by the Council – the authority upheld the complaint and we agreed with how it offered to put things right.
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.
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Complaints upheld
100% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 71% in similar authorities.
3 upheld decisions
View upheld decisionsStatistics are based on a total of 3 investigations for the period between 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022
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Compliance with Ombudsman recommendations
No recommendations were due for compliance in this period
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Satisfactory remedies provided by the Council
In 0% of upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
This compares to an average of 8% in similar authorities.
0 satisfactory remedy decisions
Statistics are based on a total of 3 upheld decisions for the period between 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022
View all satisfactory remedy decisions
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 Buckinghamshire County 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 agrees to address its lack of suitable school transport for children with Special Needs
Buckinghamshire County Council has agreed to look at the transport it has available to take children with Special Educational Needs to school, after it left one mother out of pocket when she had no alternative but to take her child to school every day.
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: 19 020 843
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council has agreed to ensure staff within its SEN Service are aware of the Council’s section 19 duties and how to escalate concerns where a young person is not accessing education.
Case reference: 18 018 286
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Domiciliary care
- The Council will write to the Ombudsmen to explain what action it will take to: - Ensure there is clear local guidance in place for AMHPs regarding the need to consult with nearest relatives as part of the Mental Health Act Assessment process, in accordance with the requirements of the Mental Health Act Code of Practice. The Council will also explain what action it will to take to ensure AMHPs are familiar with this guidance.
Case reference: 20 001 466
Category: Education
Sub Category: School transport
- The Council agrees to review its commissioning arrangements for transport for children with complex needs and disabilities to ensure there is sufficient, timely provision in the future.
Case reference: 19 020 940
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council should reviewhow it ensures Education Health and Care Plans are reviewed annually.
- The Council should remind staff of their responsibility to complete reviews of Education Health and Care Plans annually and to provide information included in the review.
- The Council should review how it records and response to requests for personal budgets.
Case reference: 19 018 236
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Safeguarding
- The Council has agreed to: • Remind social care staff that the Council has a duty to provide accommodation for homelessness applicants if it has reason to believe they may be homeless, eligible for assistance and have a priority need.
- • Put in place a process for dealing with homelessness referrals involving people with care and support needs. Housing should satisfy itself that interim accommodation is being provided if there is reason to believe the person may be homeless, eligible for assistance and have a priority need.
Case reference: 19 018 053
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- Issue written reminders to its staff to ensure they are aware of: 1. Their duty to provide full-time education where a child cannot attend school because of exclusion, medical reasons or otherwise. 2. Their duty to provide the provision set out in a child’s EHC plan. 3. Their responsibility to complete reviews annually. 4. The timescales set out in legislation after the annual review of an EHC plan.
Case reference: 19 012 845
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council agreed to remind staff that amendment notifications must be sent to parents within four weeks following annual reviews for Education, Health and Care Plans.
Case reference: 19 011 528
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- It will consider whether its procedures are robust enough to ensure SEND ordersare implemented in statutory timescales and tell us what action it has taken,or will take, to achieve this.
- The Council will review its commissioning arrangements for therapies for children ineducational settings which are in a different county and tell us what action ithas taken, or will take, to achieve this
Case reference: 18 014 794
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- Undertake a review of practice relating to the communication and execution of requests from the Council for SEND assessments and ensure guidance and recommendations are circulated to professionals in both the Council and the NHS Trust.
Last updated: 4 April 2015