Derbyshire County Council
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 197 complaints. Of these, 80 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 58 complaints. We investigated 59 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 59 complaints and upheld 55.
93% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 89% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for Derbyshire County Council's population, this is 6.8 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 17 out of 55 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
31% 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 38 cases.
In 38 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 Derbyshire 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.
Boy misses out on a year with his peers because of council failures
A Derbyshire boy had to stay in primary school for an extra year because the county council did not update his Education, Health and Care (EHC Plan) Plan in a timely manner.
Derbyshire County Council to make wholescale review of services following woman’s “avoidable” death
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has heavily criticised Derbyshire County Council for not putting the proper safeguarding measures in place for a woman in one of its care homes before she fell and died.
Autistic man had no schooling due to council’s lack of support, Ombudsman finds
Derbyshire man missed most of his secondary education because the county council did not support his special educational needs sufficiently, 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: 25 001 657
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Fostering
- The Council agreed to set up an oversight panel to project-manage complex home modification applications, ensuring the panel is in place and prepared to handle complex applications in the future.
- The Council agreed to ensure it has adequate processes in place to monitor recommendations from the statutory complaints process and ensure they are completed in a timely manner.
Case reference: 24 019 223
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will publish information about the process for claiming a mileage allowance for school transport claims. This could be in the Council’s policy or within the relevant section of its website. The information should include how to submit claims, what evidence is needed, when claim periods close and how long reimbursement will take.
Case reference: 24 019 116
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council failed to secure elements of a child's Education, Health and Care Plan through direct payments. It has agreed to review how it satisfies itself it has secured the entire provision in a Plan when delivered by direct payments to tutors and make any changes it feels necessary to meet its statutory duties.
Case reference: 24 019 115
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council failed to secure elements of a child's Education, Health and Care Plan through direct payments. It has agreed to review how it satisfies itself it has secured the entire provision in a Plan when delivered by direct payments to tutors and make any changes it feels necessary to meet its statutory duties.
Case reference: 24 017 732
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will take action (through training, guidance or quality monitoring) to ensure Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) staff know that they must complete a phase transfer review when a child with an Education, Health and Care Plan is in the key transfer year and that the review must be within 12 months of the child moving to the next education phase and not longer, and explain how they can find this information.
- The Council will take action (through training, guidance or quality monitoring) to ensure Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) staff adhere to the statutory timescales when someone requests a reassessment of an Education, Health and Care Plan so they are aware they must respond to requests within 15 calendar days.
Case reference: 24 017 437
Category: Education
Sub Category: Alternative provision
- The Council agreed to find out why it failed to:pay the financial remedy it promised the complainant in response to their complaint from a previous year; andrespond at all to their subsequent complaint the following year.It will produce a dated action plan of any changes needed to its processes and/or staff training to ensure it:properly completes complaint outcomes; and does not miss complaints and responds within its complaints’ procedure timescales.
Case reference: 24 015 971
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will review, or share the outcome of any recent review, of alternative provision placements available within the Council’s area for children with complex special educational needs. This is to ensure it can adhere to its duties under Section 19 of the Education Act 1996 without delay. If the Council finds it lack alternative provision placements it should set out an action plan with how it intends to address this.
Case reference: 24 015 538
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council has agreed to remind relevant officers to issue complaint responses within the timescales set out in the Council's complaints policy.
Case reference: 24 014 493
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will complete its review of its new system for triaging and accepting referrals into the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and First Contact teams.
- The Council will ensure its Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and First Contact teams are asking for relevant documentation from transferring local authorities in order to make timely decisions.
- The Council will ensure at stage two statutory complaint meetings, families are receiving an agenda and are given an opportunity to bring a support person and to have minutes to review after.
Case reference: 24 014 276
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will tell us what steps it is taking to ensure it considers its Section 19 duty once it has identified children with a long-term part-time education timetable
Last updated: 4 April 2015