East Riding of Yorkshire Council
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 89 complaints. Of these, 32 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 39 complaints. We investigated 18 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 18 complaints and upheld 14.
78% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 80% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for East Riding of Yorkshire Council's population, this is 4 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 3 out of 14 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
21% 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 12 cases.
In 12 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 East Riding of Yorkshire 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.
Vulnerable children removed from foster carers who wanted to adopt them
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has asked East Riding of Yorkshire Council to apologise to a foster couple after it removed two vulnerable children, they hoped to adopt, from their care.
East Riding council did not do enough to protect toddler from harm
A toddler was left with life-long injuries after East Riding of Yorkshire Council missed opportunities to protect him from his mother’s violent partner, a Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman investigation 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: 25 000 447
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Assessment and care plan
- The Council will, through staff meetings or other appropriate methods, ensure relevant teams within the Council have an understanding of specialist deafblind guidance, including the use if correct terminology for future Care Act 2014 assessments
- The Council will review the relevant care assessment policy to ensure correct use of deafblind guidance in future Care Act 2014 assessments.
Case reference: 24 017 988
Category: Education
Sub Category: Alternative provision
- The Council should share a copy of the action plan it has developed to address issues found to ensure a more joined up response within internal departments when it comes to school attendance concerns.
Case reference: 24 016 179
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will consider and implement a way to make sure that if an officer is not at work or is on a phased return, their tasks are reallocated so that work (such as putting a request before the panel) is not delayed and parents are not left to fall between the gaps.
Case reference: 24 009 357
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will provide evidence it has put in place a new process for multidisciplinary meetings to be held earlier after a special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) tribunal order has been issued.
- The Council will send the Ombudsman evidence to show it has adopted a new casework management system to generate pre-approved letters to minimise human errors. The evidence will show the letters have been reviewed in relation to terminology, transparency and signposting information.
- The Council will send the Ombudsman evidence it has provided tribunal and legal training for officers in the Council's special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) team.
- The Council will send the Ombudsman evidence to show it has sought internal approval to enhance resolution officer capacity with a focus on logging, monitoring and tracking special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) tribunal compliance and all areas of resolution.
- The Council will remind relevant staff to ensure monitoring of Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plans takes place in line with the increases stated in EHC Plans.
Case reference: 24 004 877
Category: Transport and highways
Sub Category: Highway repair and maintenance
- Share this decision with the relevant staff including, those responsible for responding to highway and land drainage enquiries.
Case reference: 23 018 973
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council has also agreed to issue written reminders to relevant staff to ensure they are aware of •the Council’s duties under section 19 of the Education Act 1996 to provide provision or suitable education for children of compulsory age who cannot attend school because of exclusion, medical reasons or otherwise.•the Council’s duty to meet statutory timescales for EHC needs assessments and EHC Plans.
Case reference: 23 018 856
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Other
- The Council has agreed to send us the outcome of a review into its complaint-handling procedures, including an action plan for reducing delays in the future.
- The Council has agreed to send us an action plan setting out how it has fixed, or will fix, the problems experienced in this complaint with its child protection investigation and case recordings.
Case reference: 23 017 410
Category: Planning
Sub Category: Planning applications
- Remind planning officers of the planning guarantee and put systems in place to ensure action is taken to meet the required timescales.
Case reference: 23 016 738
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Residential care
- Remind relevant staff of considering all available evidence when carrying out a safeguarding enquiry.
- Remind the Home of the requirement to include skin care and pressure sore prevention in the care plan.
Case reference: 23 015 698
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will provide the Ombudsman with evidence it has reviewed its Education, Health and Care Plan decision letter template.
- The Council will provide the Ombudsman with evidence it has reviewed annual review arrangements to ensure the they were understood by relevant staff.
- The Council will provide the Ombudsman with evidence it has reviewed handover arrangements between special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) case officers to ensure robust and consistent practice is in place with appropriate oversight.
- The Council will provide the Ombudsman with evidence it has secured new funds for its computer systems to support service improvements and evidence when the changes will take place.
Last updated: 4 April 2015