Guildford Borough Council
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 22 complaints. Of these, 12 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 8 complaints. We investigated 2 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 2 complaints and upheld 1.
50% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 66% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for Guildford Borough Council's population, this is 0.7 upheld decisions per 100,000 residents.
The average for authorities of this type is
1.1 upheld decisions per 100,000 residents. -
Satisfactory remedies provided by the Council
In 0 out of 1 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
0% satisfactory remedy rate.
This compares to an average of 15% in similar authorities.
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Compliance with Ombudsman recommendations
We recorded compliance outcomes in 2 cases.
In 2 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 Guildford Borough 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.
No reports published
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: 22 008 423
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Other
- The Council will send a memo to officers dealing with complaints to remind them if a person raises concerns about how a decision that affects them has been reached it can be dealt with under the complaints procedure for those matters where there is no right of appeal.
Case reference: 22 002 967
Category: Benefits and tax
Sub Category: Council tax support
- a)produce clear guidance to staff on how and when to consider whether they need to make any reasonable adjustments for service users. This should include, for example, asking the service user if the Council needs to make any adjustments in the way it communicates with them to ensure the complainant can fully access its service. This guidance should be clearly embedded in the Council’s guidance on handling complaints and its procedure on benefit claims; b)share this decision with relevant staff members; and c)provide the Ombudsman with evidence that these actions have been completed.
Case reference: 21 002 213
Category: Environment and regulation
Sub Category: Antisocial behaviour
- The Council agreed to share this decision with its officers dealing with high hedge complaints to emphasise the Council’s requirement to promptly acknowledge appeal requests when made by members of the public.
- The Council will review its high hedge policy and/or procedure to ensure that complainants are informed of the progress of their case and to see if it can improve the process to make sure it completes the complaints promptly.
Case reference: 20 005 014
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Disabled facilities grants
- The Council will also ensure any agreed schedule of works is implemented without delay and take timely action to prevent any ongoing injustice, and review its working practices setting out the roles and responsibilities of each party in the DFG process.
Last updated: 4 April 2015