East Sussex County Council
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 106 complaints. Of these, 22 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 56 complaints. We investigated 28 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
-
Complaints upheld
We investigated 28 complaints and upheld 21.
75% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 89% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for East Sussex County Council's population, this is 3.8 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 4 out of 21 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
19% satisfactory remedy rate.
This compares to an average of 10% in similar authorities.
-
Compliance with Ombudsman recommendations
We recorded compliance outcomes in 21 cases.
In 21 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 Sussex 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.
Council asked to revise transport policy for adult learners with Special Educational Needs
East Sussex County Council has been asked to review its policy for providing home to college transport for young adults with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), after the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman criticised the way it dealt with a family’s situation.
East Sussex County Council to improve record keeping at school attendance meetings, Ombudsman says
East Sussex County Council has agreed to consider improving the records it keeps of meetings about school non-attendance following an Ombudsman investigation.
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: 24 023 110
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Assessment and care plan
- The Council should, within three months of the final decision, consider any training needs of officers completing or overseeing needs assessments under the Care Act.
Case reference: 24 019 487
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Assessment and care plan
- The Council agreed to review its procedures for transferring cases between its hospital discharge and neighbourhood support teams to ensure officers issue and complete all necessary paperwork and tell service users about the transfer.
- The Council agreed to write to relevant staff to remind them of the importance of timely responses to telephone messages, particularly when transferring cases between teams.
Case reference: 24 016 011
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will also review what happened in this case, including the decision-making and oversight processes that led to a prolonged failure to secure the provision in Y’s EHC Plan. In particular, it should identify what steps could have been taken earlier to clarify that provision was not in place, and to act on Mrs X’s concerns. The Council will write to the Ombudsman to confirm what changes or service improvements it proposes to make as a result of this review.
Case reference: 24 015 399
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- Remind relevant staff of the importance of ensuring EHC plans are issued within the statutory timescales. The Council will provide evidence of this to the Ombudsman in the form of a staff briefing paper, notes of a team meeting or evidence of another form of staff circular, within one month of the final decision.
Case reference: 24 014 172
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will issue a reminder to staff about:•its duty under Section 42 of the Children and Families Act to secure the provision outlined in a child or young person’s Education, Health and Care (EHC)Plan;•the importance of checking the special educational provision is in place when a new or amended EHC plan is issued or there is a change in placement; and•effectively investigating complaints or concerns that provision is not in place at any time.
Case reference: 24 011 027
Category: Education
Sub Category: Alternative provision
- The Council has amended its alternative education policy in the light of this complaint. But it will consider ensuring that relevant officers obtain information from the allocated school when deciding on whether it should provide alternative education; and
- it will consider sending a medical consent form to parents/carers when requests for alternative education are made or when the Council becomes aware that a pupil is out of school for medical reasons.
Case reference: 24 008 593
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Residential care
- The Council has agreed to identify the action it needs to take to ensure: care providers receive copies of care and support plans; the Council is commissioning the support it has assessed people as needing; and officers accept requests to review people’s needs.
Case reference: 24 008 152
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Other
- The Council has agreed to remind staff of the need to arrange a formal visit with all parties when carrying out a section 17 family assessment to ensure all views are properly considered and all parties are given a chance to comment on concerns raised about them.
Case reference: 23 015 102
Category: Education
Sub Category: School admissions
- The clerk will remind the clerk about the need to make accurate and more detailed records of appeal hearings.
- The Council agreed to provide training to the panel about the consideration of evidence and reaching decisions on prejudice.
- The Council agreed to act to ensure on future appeals, the presenting officer has sufficient information to allow for detailed answering of questioning by panels.
- The Council agreed to act to ensure on future appeals, the Council as admission authority provides submission statements with fuller, relevant information.
Case reference: 23 014 977
Category: Education
Sub Category: Alternative provision
- The Council has agreed to explain what action it intends to take around its commissioning arrangements for alternative provision tutors for children out of school. This is to prevent delays in securing alternative provision for children out of school going forward.
Last updated: 4 April 2015