Devon County Council
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 235 complaints. Of these, 48 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 106 complaints. We investigated 81 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 81 complaints and upheld 69.
85% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 89% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for Devon County Council's population, this is 8.3 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 69 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
9% 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 59 cases.
In 59 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 Devon 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.
A teenager with Autism and ADHD was less than a week away from being made homeless because Devon County Council had not decided where he should live when he became 18.
Devon to review benefits calculations for nearly 300 carers following Ombudsman’s investigation
Devon County Council has agreed to look into how it calculated allowances to nearly 300 families who look after children as special guardians, following an investigation by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.
Devon teen missed out on education because of council delays
A Devon teenager with special educational needs has missed out on nearly a year’s education because the county council did not plan for her to move schools when she finished Year 11, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has found.
Elderly nursing home resident forced to move because of funding blunders
A Devon centenarian was threatened with eviction from her nursing home because of unpaid fees, despite both her family and the council paying for her care.
Greater consideration of Armed Forces Covenant needed by local authorities, Ombudsman warns
It’s not enough for councils just to pay lip service to the Armed Forces Covenant, the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) has warned.
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: 25 005 225
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Other
- Within one month, the Council remind relevant staff that complaints about Section 17 assessments should be considered under the statutory procedure.
Case reference: 24 022 418
Category: Transport and highways
Sub Category: Highway repair and maintenance
- •share a copy of this decision with relevant staff, including those responsible for responding to service users’ enquiries. Remind them about the importance of properly considering and responding in a timely manner to service users’ enquiries, concerns and complaints about highway and maintenance issues
- •ensure the Council proactively and properly considers efficient ways to complete remedial work to resolve highway and maintenance issues it receives from service users. And ensure the Council also completes remedial works in a timely manner
- •provide the Ombudsman with updates on the Council’s service improvements it mentioned in its response to our enquiries. Updates on the Council’s:a)preventive maintenance strategy to avoid highway slurry seal spillage recurrenceb)monitoring process outcome of its recently conducted trial of new material which was thought to be a better solution for steeper sites.
- •review the Council’s process and procedure on how it monitors the roadworks undertaken by its commissioned contractors. This is to ensure its contractors complete roadworks which meet the Council’s expected standards.
Case reference: 24 019 922
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Child protection
- The Council will remind staff, either through training or a briefing note, of the importance of considering relevant eligibility tests and other matters in line with the statutory guidance on children’s statutory complaints procedure.
Case reference: 24 015 684
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Assessment and care plan
- Review its process for monitoring outstanding social care assessments to ensure it identifies overdue assessments and takes appropriate action to avoid future delays.
- Review how it monitors and records complaints to ensure it issues responses to all formal complaints, even if it believes the issues have been resolved.
Case reference: 24 015 638
Category: Education
Sub Category: Alternative provision
- The Council has a s.19 policy and framework, but the policy was not followed in this case. The Council will reflect on why this happened in this case and provide the Ombudsman with a list of remedial actions it will take to ensure similar cases do not fall through the net and its policy is followed in future.
Case reference: 24 012 631
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Looked after children
- Following an investigation under the children's statutory complaint process, the Council agreed to review its practice around arranging child in care reviews and carry out a quality assurance exercise on its social work practice. The Council will update the Ombudsman on the changes to its social work practice standards and the quality assurance work agreed.
- Following an investigation under the children's statutory complaint process, the Council agreed to develop good practice for its children's homes around the handling of young people's belongings. The Council will update the Ombudsman on the changes to its policies and procedures around ownership of items in young person's care placements agreed.
- The Council failed to make its findings clear in a stage one complaint response under the children's statutory complaint process. It will review its approach to stage one statutory children's complaints to ensure its findings on each complaint are clear.
Case reference: 24 011 249
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Transition from childrens services
- The Council will draw up an action plan to address the backlog in adult social care assessments. If the Council already has an action plan it should provide a copy of that to the Ombudsman.
Case reference: 24 008 530
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Assessment and care plan
- Review its process for monitoring outstanding social care assessments to ensure it identifies overdue assessments and takes appropriate action to avoid future delays.
- Review how it monitors and records complaints to ensure it issues responses to all formal complaints, even if it believes the issues have been resolved.
Case reference: 24 007 013
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- •Remind relevant staff of the Council’s duties in adhering to the statutory timescales when completing EHC needs assessments.
Case reference: 24 011 848
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Transition from childrens services
- The Council will issue written reminders to relevant staff to ensure they complete a Care Act 2014 assessment and create a care and support plan in good time to ensure a smooth transition from children’s services to adult care services. If adult care and support is not in place on the child’s 18th birthday, the Council should continue providing services until adult care and support is in place to take over.
Last updated: 4 April 2015