Cambridgeshire County Council
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 79 complaints. Of these, 29 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 27 complaints. We investigated 23 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 23 complaints and upheld 18.
78% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 89% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for Cambridgeshire County Council's population, this is 2.6 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 6 out of 18 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
33% 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 12 cases.
In 12 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 Cambridgeshire 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.
Vulnerable people’s drug prescriptions to be reviewed following Ombudsman investigation
Hundreds of people across England with drug and alcohol dependencies who have been prescribed Valium long-term, will have their cases reviewed following an Ombudsman investigation.
Vulnerable Cambridgeshire boy left without education for 14 months
Cambridgeshire County Council has refused to apologise to a family after it left their clinically vulnerable son without any education or support during the COVID-19 crisis.
Ombudsman warns of the risk of determining capacity without proper assessment
Social workers are being reminded that capacity assessments made under the Mental Capacity Act must be recorded properly, after an investigation by the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) found a man had been forced to live in a care home against his wishes and without sufficient evidence of going through the proper process.
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: 24 015 141
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- Provide evidence of increased staffing and resource allocation to ensure there is sufficient capacity to manage the increased demand for Education, Health and Care Plans within statutory timeframes.
- Provide evidence of enhanced monitoring and accountability to track the progress of Education, Health and Care Plans from start to finish.
Case reference: 24 011 650
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Charging
- The Council agreed to review its approach to assessing Disability Related Expenditure to ensure it considers each claim on its individual merits and does not apply any fixed or rigid rules, including not applying any guidance it uses rigidly.
- The Council agreed to review how it monitors outstanding care charges to ensure it does not allow debts to grow without considering taking further action, especially when it does not receive responses to its letters.
Case reference: 24 009 633
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council agreed to issue reminders to relevant staff about its non-delegable duty under section 42 of the Children and Families Act 2014, to ensure a child with an Education, Health, and Care Plan receives the special educational needs provision in their Plan. It will remind staff the Council remains liable where a school fails to deliver provision, and that it should properly investigate when concerns are raised that provision is not in place, and record any evidence about this.
- The Council agreed to issue reminders to relevant staff about its duty under section 19 of the Education Act 1996 to provide suitable alternative education when a child is out of school. It will remind staff the Council needs to properly consider whether the section 19 duty applies and record this consideration, and that the Council must make this decision, not the school.
Case reference: 24 005 132
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Assessment and care plan
- 1. Within three months of the decision, the Council should:• Review its policy and process of reviewing existing Care and Support Plans to ensure that they are reviewed in accordance with statutory guidance; • Review its policy and process of carrying out assessments and ensure they are being carried out in accordance with statutory guidance; • Remind all relevant staff of the correct policies and procedures. 2. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.
Case reference: 24 005 341
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will issue a staff briefing to remind all relevant staff of the importance of meeting statutory timescales for EHC Plan annual reviews. This will help to ensure annual reviews are completed in a timely manner without delay.
Case reference: 24 001 065
Category: Education
Sub Category: Alternative provision
- The Council agreed to issue a reminder to relevant staff, with a copy of our decision, to ensure it properly considers and records its section 19 duties to arrange suitable alternative education when a child is out of school, and keeps this under regular review.
- The Council agreed to review its process for when a child with an Education, Health, and Care Plan is out of school, to ensure it meets its duty to secure the provision in the Plan as far as possible outside a school setting. It will decide whether it needs to make any administrative changes to its processes, or deliver training to staff, to ensure this is not missed in future.
- The Council agreed to issue a reminder to relevant complaint handling staff about its two-stage complaints procedure. It should explain the importance of escalating complaints about the same issues to Stage 2 instead of reconsidering at Stage 1, so as not to delay complainants in approaching the Ombudsman.
Case reference: 23 019 550
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will provide the Ombudsman with an update on its actions to improve its Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) service, including:• recruitment of SEND staff;• the implementation of the new case management system;• timescales for introducing a portal environment for casework; and• what improvements it has implemented to improve its consultation process with schools.
Case reference: 23 015 876
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council agreed that it would review its current procedure for following up on actions it agrees to take where it has upheld a complaint. It should be clear to the complainant who will be taking the action agreed and by when, and the Council should have a process in place to ensure it has taken that action. In this case the Council had failed to provide such clarification or make such checks.
- The Council agreed it would provide a briefing to all its staff who respond to complaints about special education needs provision on the importance of signposting complainant to the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal, where appropriate. In this case the Council, in the course of answering a complaint, had become involved in a dispute that it was more appropriate the complainant pursue through appealing to the Tribunal.
- The Council agreed to review its procedure for undertaking social care needs assessments for children not previously known to its children's social services, where it is undertaking an education, health and care needs assessment. This was to ensure it could complete the 'care assessment' element within Government timescales and that officers in both education and children's social care staff were aware of their responsibilities in this area.
- The Council agreed to circulate among managers in its complaint and children's services, a focus report issued by the Ombudsman called Equal Access. This was to raise awareness of the principles of good administrative practice necessary for underpinning a commitment to ensure reasonable adjustments for disabled users of services.
Case reference: 23 012 673
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Child protection
- The Council agreed to remind its staff of the importance of ensuring that all relevant parties are included in the Child and Family Assessment process.
Case reference: 23 009 964
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- Complete and publish the information about what young people can expect from a person-centre approach and publish this on its SEND Information Hub (Local Offer).
- Complete and publish information in an accessible format on the Pathways through its processes on reviewing, maintaining, and amending EHC Plans and publish this on its SEND Information Hub (Local Offer).
Last updated: 4 April 2015