Gloucestershire County Council
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 97 complaints. Of these, 34 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 29 complaints. We investigated 34 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 34 complaints and upheld 29.
85% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 89% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for Gloucestershire County Council's population, this is 4.4 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 5 out of 29 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
17% satisfactory remedy rate.
This compares to an average of 10% in similar authorities.
-
Compliance with Ombudsman recommendations
We recorded compliance outcomes in 26 cases.
In 25 cases we were satisfied with the actions taken.96% 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 Gloucestershire 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 fails to take on board expert advice when assessing woman’s care needs
A Gloucestershire woman was left malnourished and without the support she needed for her medical conditions because the county council ignored professional advice, 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: 24 015 276
Category: Education
Sub Category: Alternative provision
- The Council has agreed to create an action plan to address how it will improve internal processes and communication when considering its Section 19 responsibility and making the necessary arrangements to put alternative provision in place in a timely manner.
Case reference: 24 004 646
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Looked after children
- The Council will remind officers responding to complaints at stage three of the children's statutory complaints procedure that the Council can deviate from the recommendations made by the stage three panel with its reasons, but cannot overturn the stage three panel’s outcomes on the complaint.
- The Council will consider the Ombudsman's decision finding fault in how it provided care, accommodation and education to a child in its care at a relevant scrutiny committee and consider if there are any further actions the Council intends to take in relation to the child’s case or its children’s home sufficiency.
- The Council will provide the Ombudsman with a 6 and 12 month update on the progress it has made with the development of four properties as children’s homes.
Case reference: 24 007 540
Category: Education
Sub Category: School admissions
- The Council agreed to remind all clerks of the need to follow the Code in terms of ensuring: records of panel decisions show how members considered and weighed prejudice, and weighed it against an appellant’s submissions; decision letters set out reasons for appeal panel decisions.
- The Council agreed to remind all panel members to: be consistent with their approach to evidence which is speculative; explore and test the prejudice case submitted.
Case reference: 24 004 118
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- By training or other means remind relevant staff to always inform/update parents or guardians about the Council’s reviews and outcomes on its plans whether to increase a child’s part-time education.
Case reference: 24 002 474
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will provide the Ombudsman with an update on its action plan to address the lack of Occupational and Speech and Language Therapists in its area.
Case reference: 23 018 672
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Other
- The Council will ensure a copy of our final decision is considered by relevant Members. The Council has suggested that the final decision is shared as part of a safeguarding meeting of Members.
- The Council will share this decision with relevant staff.
Case reference: 23 016 513
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Charging
- The Council has agreed to identify the action it is going to take to ensure it does financial assessments promptly and it communicates more clearly with people about the charges for their care.
Case reference: 23 015 666
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Charging
- The Council will remind staff making adult social care financial assessment decisions and on appeal panels that they must consider the person's individual circumstances when deciding what to treat as Disability Related Expenditure.
Case reference: 23 014 851
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- In the response to the complaint, the Council explained it is taking steps to restructure the service area, increase staffing and use additional practitioners such as locum Educational Psychologists (EP). With this in mind, the Council has agreed to provide evidence of any planned service improvements, or those already undertaken, to improve the timescales for EHC needs assessments and EP allocation.
Case reference: 23 012 707
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Other
- The Council will remind staff to ensure when seeking to limit contact between a client and their relatives they are clear whether this is its recommendation to the family, or whether a formal best interests’ decision is required
Last updated: 4 April 2015