Herefordshire Council
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 75 complaints. Of these, 17 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 41 complaints. We investigated 17 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 17 complaints and upheld 12.
71% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 80% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for Herefordshire Council's population, this is 6.3% 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 12 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
8% 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 Herefordshire 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.
Herefordshire man left for nearly a year in unsuitable care home
A Herefordshire man was left for 11 months longer than he should in an unsuitable care home, because busy social workers delayed finding him the appropriate care.
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: 24 008 257
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will remind its SEND staff of its duty to ensure it issues decisions which always sets out appeal rights to parents and young people. This includes when requests for Education, Health, and Care needs assessment or reassessments are received, and a decision has been made.
- The Council will review the current staffing levels within its special educational needs team and how it allocates cases. This is to ensure it has sufficient staff available to respond to and action Education, Health, and Care plan assessments and annual reviews within the statutory timescales, including when existing staff leaves or are unexpectedly absent.
Case reference: 24 007 066
Category: Environment and regulation
Sub Category: Noise
- The council will review the case to see what lessons can be learnt to prevent a reoccurrence of the delays in considering enforcement action.
Case reference: 24 002 513
Category: Environment and regulation
Sub Category: Antisocial behaviour
- The Council agreed to issue a reminder to all staff responsible for investigating complaints of potential statutory nuisance, on the importance of communicating the decision to end an investigation in writing. Also, to ensure that such decisions include reasons for ending the investigation.
Case reference: 23 018 878
Category: Education
Sub Category: Other
- The Council will review how it will ensure that adjudication letters are sent in line with the statutory complaints procedure.
- The Council has agreed to review how it will ensure that it considers our guidance on remedies for upheld complaints.
Case reference: 23 014 021
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- The Council has agreed to review how it responds to reports of disrepair made by residents in temporary accommodation and remind its housing staff that this is an important part of keeping the suitability of the temporary accommodation it provides under review.
Case reference: 23 013 891
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Assessment and care plan
- Provide guidance to staff to ensure consent is obtained prior to being accompanied on visits to service users.
Case reference: 23 007 100
Category: Transport and highways
Sub Category: Highway repair and maintenance
- The Council will show the Ombudsman that it has reviewed its highways and maintenance policy, to demonstrate how it has considered its duties under the Equality Act 2010 and assessed risks to protected groups under that Act.
Case reference: 23 006 249
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Other
- We identified recurrent fault by the Council in failing to use the statutory complaints procedure for children’s social care services when it should have. The Council agreed to:ensure a copy of our final decision is considered by the relevant scrutiny committee and cabinet member; andshare a copy of our final decision with all staff dealing with complaints about children’s social care services, to discuss and identify learning.
Case reference: 23 002 732
Category: Transport and highways
Sub Category: Rights of way
- Provide guidance to its highways maintenance service contractor and Council staff handling complaints, regarding effective complaint handling, as listed on the Ombudsman’s website.
Case reference: 22 010 094
Category: Planning
Sub Category: Enforcement
- The Council agreed to review how it deals with planning casework information received and held on individual officers’ email accounts. The aim of the review being to ensure the Council has effective procedures for ensuring such information is: • quickly moved to the appropriate case record and so available to all relevant officers, and or • readily accessible should any officer leave the Council’s employment or be absent for any significant time.
Last updated: 4 April 2015