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.
Derbyshire schoolgirls move within same village and lose school bus pass
Our investigation report highlights how councils should operate a fair and accessible school transport review 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: 24 007 156
Category: Education
Sub Category: School transport
- The Council will remind those dealing with school transport cases of the need to ensure parents/carers are given the opportunity to attend appeal panel hearings should they wish to.
- The Council will advise those dealing with transport appeals of the need to keep notes from the appeal hearing so there is a record of what information the appeal panel considered.
- The Council will remind those dealing with complaints to ensure complaints which include concerns about failure to follow processes or consider relevant information are put through the Council’s complaints procedure even if the Council considers the decision cannot be overturned by the complaint process.
Case reference: 24 003 369
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Charging
- The Council should consider whether this is an isolated incident or whether it needs to take further action to remind service providers about the completion of contracts.
Case reference: 24 003 113
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council should provide us with evidence of the steps it has taken to improve its communication.
Case reference: 24 002 510
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council agreed to review why there was a failure to act, explore, and properlyconsider Mrs D’s concerns raised at the time about the need for an interimreview and non-provision.
- The Council agreed to remind relevant officers of the need to act, explore, and properlyconsider concerns raised about the need for interim reviews and claims ofnon-provision.
- The Council agreed to clarify whether the changes it made following thedelays with the EHC needs assessment resulted in improvements to the overallcompletion of the process and compliance with statutory timeframes.
- The Council agreed to review why there were delays sending the required informationand notices following the interim review along with the final EHC plan.
- The Council agreed to:a) remind officers of the need to respond to communication properly and fully from parents about their children’s EHC plans and concerns.b) remind Complaint Officers of the need, where appropriate, to tell complainants their complaint will take longer than the standard time period and to give them reasons along with a likely date by which they will receive a final response.
Case reference: 23 021 000
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council agreed to remind officers of the Council’s responsibility, under Section 19 of the Education Act 1996, to ensure children out of school receive full-time education provision, or the provision that is assessed to be in the child’s best interests. The Council should continue to review its decision about whether it owes a section 19 duties to make sure it steps in as soon as the duties are engaged.
Case reference: 23 017 942
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- Create an action plan to demonstrate how the Council will implement the steps it has taken to improve its Special Educational Needs and Disability service.
- Provide evidence of how the Council is monitoring the impact of the changes made to its Special Educational Needs and Disability service.
Case reference: 23 017 456
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Child protection
- The Council has agreed to provide us with an action plan which sets out how, in future, it will avoid similar failings in safeguarding timeliness and social work visiting frequency.
Case reference: 23 011 999
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will remind staff of the importance of communicating decisions around educational personal budgets in writing to applicants.
- The Council will remind staff of the importance of considering complaints and providing clear, reasoned responses.
Case reference: 23 011 962
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- Review its alternative education policy alongside our published guidance ‘Out of school, out of sight?’ July 2022. It should consider the recommendations we made, and how it can incorporate these recommendations into its policy.
Case reference: 23 008 346
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- Provide the Ombudsman with evidence of the steps taken as part of the Council’s remodelling of its special educational needs and disability service, and its employment of additional Educational Psychologists.
Last updated: 4 April 2015