Hampshire County Council
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 179 complaints. Of these, 72 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 69 complaints. We investigated 38 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 38 complaints and upheld 30.
79% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 89% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for Hampshire 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 1 out of 30 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
3% 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 25 cases.
In 25 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 Hampshire 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.
Hampshire council did not arrange transport for boy with special needs in time
Hampshire County Council expected a young child with special educational needs to travel on their own in a taxi to school – or face a three-hour round-trip in shared transport.
Hampshire to review SEN services following mother’s complaint
Hampshire County Council has agreed to review the resources it has put into its Special Educational Needs team, following a complaint to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.
County council failed to meet man’s needs, leaving him to pay for some of his own care
Hampshire County Council has been criticised by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman after it failed to meet an elderly man’s needs when his finances ran short.
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: 25 008 975
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Charging
- During the course of the Ombudsmen's investigation the Council and an NHS integrated care board were already in the process of developing and agreeing a funding dispute process. The Council should complete an action plan about finalising and implementing this dispute process. The action plan should include timeframes for key actions, escalation plans and information about senior oversight.
Case reference: 25 003 689
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council agreed to ensure relevant officers consider and explore whether the nearest suitable, appropriate school could take a child with an Education, Health and Care plan when it initially says it cannot.
- The Council agreed to remind relevant officers of the need to consider and explore the provision of tuition either at home, or away from home, where restrictions are raised by parents.
- The Council agreed to ensure officers consider the section 19 duty and make a record of the decision made.
- The Council agreed to remind relevant officers of the need to ensure provision set out in an Education, Health and Care plan is made when a child does not attend school for whatever reason.
Case reference: 25 001 375
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Safeguarding
- •Review its procedures for transition planning for young people approaching 18. The review should focus on how staff will ensure assessments take place early enough so there are no gaps in provision, and an adult care package is in place for when the young person turns 18.
Case reference: 24 020 946
Category: Education
Sub Category: Other
- Review its penalty notice procedures to ensure payment records are properly reviewed before enforcement action is taken. This should include either adapting its systems to detect over payments or introducing a manual check to identify payment anomalies where enforcement is being considered.
- Ensure internal correspondence-handling arrangements are robust enough to route payment-related emails to the correct team.
Case reference: 24 017 768
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council has agreed to provide details of the steps it is taking to improve the supply of EP reports.
Case reference: 24 012 888
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Other
- The Council has agreed to issue a briefing(s) note to all relevant staff using this case as a case study. The briefing(s) should reinforce the following expectations:Safeguarding telephone calls must be handled appropriately, with staff responding proportionately to each concern, regardless of whether the individual is a frequent caller.Staff must apply the correct criteria when responding to safeguarding concerns, including proper consideration of Section 42 of the Care Act 2014 where appropriate.All communications and decisions related to safeguarding concerns must be accurately recorded.Referrers should be included in the information-gathering process when responding to safeguarding referrals.Each case should be assessed individually. The allocation or pending allocation of a social worker must not prevent appropriate escalation of concerns.Assessment visits must be documented promptly, with any agreed actions carried out without delay.Contacts from individuals must be responded to by the allocated worker promptly.Where difficulties arise in sourcing an appropriate care provider, staff must continue efforts to meet the individual’s assessed needs. If all options are exhausted, the matter should be escalated appropriately.When care cannot be provided, a risk assessment must be completed and the matter escalated. This should include consideration of alternative legal frameworks and care solutions.Multi-disciplinary team meetings must be formally minuted, with clear action plans recorded.Where difficulties arise impacting the progression of DFG works. If all options are exhausted, the matter should be escalated appropriately.
Case reference: 24 010 249
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Charging
- The Council agreed to consider how it can improve communication between internal teams and external agencies to ensure notification of the death of a care receiver is passed to the appropriate team.
Case reference: 24 007 579
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Charging
- The Council will provide written advice to all adult social care providers in its area to remind them of best practice and minimising the risks to residents and staff when supporting residents with managing their personal finances.
Case reference: 24 006 219
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will remind all relevant staff, including managers, of the Council’s duty to provide alternative educational provision. The Council should remind staff not to wait for forms from schools: the Council must not delay arranging alternative provision.
Case reference: 24 004 851
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will review its process for engaging with Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan annual reviews, to ensure it has a robust way to:check whether children and young people had received the special educational provision in section F of their EHC Plan; andidentify significant gaps between the provision EHC Plans say that commissioned services should be delivering, and what they are actually delivering.
Last updated: 4 April 2015