Durham County Council
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 111 complaints. Of these, 42 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 53 complaints. We investigated 16 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 16 complaints and upheld 11.
69% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 80% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for Durham County Council's population, this is 2.1% 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 11 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
18% 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 5 cases.
In 5 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 Durham 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.
LGO issues further report on Durham planning complaint
The Local Government Ombudsman has issued a further report into a planning complaint against Durham County Council.
Durham council told to review staff misconduct procedure following ombudsman’s investigation.
Durham County Council has been asked by the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) to review the way it deals with staff misconduct complaints after a man claimed he was ‘gazumped’ by a building control officer following an official site visit.
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: 24 008 210
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council agreed to review why it delayed in completing an Education, Health, and Care (EHC) needs assessment and finalising the EHC Plan. It will produce a dated action plan to prevent recurrence of the same faults in future.
Case reference: 24 007 979
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- Provide the Ombudsman with an update as to what specific action it is taking to reduce the backlog of assessments waiting for advice from Educational Psychologists.
- Stop routinely applying the exemption where an educational institution is closed for at least four weeks. The Council should only apply this when it is relevant and the delays completing the assessment are due to it being unable to receive advice in time from the educational provider. The Council should provide evidence to the Ombudsman as to what steps it has taken to stop this exemption being routinely applied to all cases with delays.
Case reference: 24 007 103
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Safeguarding
- The Council has agreed to take action to ensure people in Mr X’s circumstances can self-refer for an assessment of their needs;
- work with the Handyman Service with a view to it accepting referrals from the Council without the need for the person to then prove their eligibility to use the service.
Case reference: 24 007 054
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Charging
- The Council has agreed to ensure all social work staff are aware of the correct procedure to follow when a person goes into residential care.
Case reference: 24 001 522
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Other
- The Council together with the ICB and Trust, will ensure staff are trained on how to apply the current Section 117 aftercare policy when discharging people from Section 117 aftercare, including fully involving people and their carers or advocates in the decision.
Case reference: 23 019 438
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Charging
- The Council has agreed to:a) review the invoicing errors and delays that have occurred in this complaint and provide a plan about what the Council will do to prevent reoccurrence;
- b) review how this service provider has been monitored and whether the spot checks currently in place for charging are sufficient to prevent future service failure;
- c) review how the Council advises and invoices people for telecare services to ensure the information and charges are clear;
- d) remind staff about the importance of recording changes in care packages and providing updated support plans to service users so that there is a clear written record of provided services;
- e) remind staff about going through services provided when completing a review so that there is a record the person is receiving services both agreed to and paid for.
Case reference: 23 003 726
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Direct payments
- The Council has agreed to identify the action it is going to take to ensure officers understand the Council’s duties under the Care Act 2014 to:a) meet people’s eligible care needsb) increase personal budgets when a cheaper solution cannot be foundc) only provide direct payments if people request them
- The Council has agreed to take action to ensure officers take account of people's rights under the Human Rights Act 1998 when responding to complaints.
Case reference: 22 016 416
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Assessment and care plan
- The Council was unable to procure a care provider to meet a man's reablement care needs. The Council will review its care commissioning arrangements and create an action plan of the actions it will take to improve the availability of care providers. It will provide the Ombudsman with a copy of the action plan.
Case reference: 22 006 163
Category: Other Categories
Sub Category: Other
- The Council has agreed to review its handling of this case and consider how it can improve its management of the Energy Efficiency Improvement (EEI) Scheme in the future.
Case reference: 21 018 631
Category: Planning
Sub Category: Enforcement
- Review procedures to ensure that decisions on enforcement matters are properly recorded and communicated
Last updated: 4 April 2015