Cheshire East Council
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 146 complaints. Of these, 32 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 82 complaints. We investigated 32 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 32 complaints and upheld 24.
75% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 80% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for Cheshire East Council's population, this is 5.8 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 2 out of 24 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
8% 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 18 cases.
In 18 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 Cheshire East 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.
Cheshire East wrongly started care proceedings process against mum who simply needed support
A Cheshire East mum nearly had her children placed in care following the traumatic birth of her second child, after the council instigated care proceedings without proper evidence, 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: 25 002 549
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will review its Annual Review process to ensure there are no unnecessary delays in dealing with the review documents sent by the schools.
- The Council will ensure there is a system in place to prevent parents of the children with EHC Plans being negatively affected by the changes in the SEND staff.
Case reference: 25 002 457
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Disabled children
- Remind relevant staff of the types of complaints that should be considered under the statutory procedure (section 2.2 of the statutory guidance 'Getting the best from complaints' details this)
Case reference: 24 021 651
Category: Environment and regulation
Sub Category: Drainage
- The Council will review its record keeping to ensure all communication and decisions are recorded on the central system.
- The Council will remind its staff responding to the flooding reports of the importance to provide updates to people who have been affected. If the Council does not intend to take any action, it should communicate it clearly, providing its reasons.
Case reference: 24 017 816
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Charging
- The Council will review and amend its adult social care non-residential charging policy and any associated disability related expenditure (DRE) documentation or guidance issued to officers. It will do this to reflect there should be no DRE limit equivalent to the amount of disability related benefit a person receives when it writes off DRE in its financial assessments. This will help to ensure it does not fetter its discretion by adopting such a limit.
Case reference: 24 017 188
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Child protection
- The Council failed to follow its complaint procedure. The Council has agreed to review why this happened and take steps to ensure staff follow the procedure in future.
Case reference: 24 017 097
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Safeguarding
- Ask the Agency to remind staff of the regulations and policies regarding record keeping in care provision and medication.
Case reference: 24 016 532
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Direct payments
- The Council has agreed to remind relevant officers of the Council’s duties including: clearly recording eligible needs, identifying any eligible needs being met by a carer, recording the number of hours of care, reviewing care plans in line with the statutory guidance.
Case reference: 24 016 531
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Fostering
- The Council has agreed to remind relevant complaint handling staff of the guidance linked to the children's statutory complaints procedure (The Children Act 1989) 'Getting the Best from Complaints' particularly around 'who may complain' and 'what may be complained about'. This will help to ensure Council staff are fully aware of the statutory procedure and how this differs from its corporate complaints process.
- The Council has agreed to share the Ombudsman's good practice guidance on the children's statutory complaints procedure (The Children Act 1989) with relevant staff. This will help to ensure staff understand when the statutory procedure should be used to handle children's services complaints, rather than the corporate complaint process.
Case reference: 24 011 853
Category: Education
Sub Category: School exclusions
- Remind staff of the need to adhere to the statutory guidance regarding independent review panel hearings; specifically that the minutes of the meeting should name all attendees, and that the clerk should make reasonable efforts to send relevant paperwork to all parties at least five school days prior to the review.
Case reference: 24 010 821
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Charging
- The Council has agreed to review its processes to ensure better communication and follow up between social workers and its finance team where it appears that financial assessments may be necessary and are not showing as completed for council funded care and support.
Last updated: 4 April 2015