Hertfordshire County Council
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 169 complaints. Of these, 43 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 57 complaints. We investigated 69 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 69 complaints and upheld 65.
94% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 89% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for Hertfordshire County Council's population, this is 5.3 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 4 out of 65 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
6% satisfactory remedy rate.
This compares to an average of 10% in similar authorities.
-
Compliance with Ombudsman recommendations
We recorded compliance outcomes in 54 cases.
In 53 cases we were satisfied with the actions taken.98% 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 Hertfordshire 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 staff should speak out about discrimination, Ombudsman finds
Hertfordshire County Council has not yet agreed to Ombudsman recommendations to improve its practices after a primary school admitted it had discriminated against a little boy because of his disabilities.
Herts teen left without proper SEND support for three years
A teenager on the autism spectrum was left without a significant proportion of his agreed special educational needs support for up to three years by Hertfordshire County Council, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has found.
Council fails to help care users maintain their homes
Hertfordshire County Council has been asked to review its social care practices to ensure it meets its Care Act duties to help people keep their home tidy.
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: 24 010 715
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will provide the Ombudsman with evidence it has addressed the following matters with staff:the importance of ensuring provision and personal budgets are both arranged and processed in a timely manner, adhering to its customer service standards; andthe importance of effectively communicating with parents.
Case reference: 24 007 910
Category: Education
Sub Category: Alternative provision
- Issue a reminder to all relevant staff regarding the duty to provide education when children are unable to attend school due to illness
Case reference: 24 007 412
Category: Education
Sub Category: Other
- The Council will remind relevant staff dealing with reports of domestic abuse of the need to check whether an alleged perpetrator lives at the same address as the domestic abuse victim or whether there are other circumstances that indicate a letter should not be sent to the victim's home address.
Case reference: 24 007 073
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will remind relevant staff about the importance of responding to communication in a timely manner; and remind relevant staff of its duty to quickly investigate and act on complaints or concerns raised that the provision is not in place at any time.
Case reference: 24 006 445
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- • Share this decision with the relevant staff and advise the SEND QA Board• Issue a bulletin to relevant staff, reminding them of the process of saving records and the importance of doing so, across the service.
Case reference: 24 004 447
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- 2. Within three months of the final decision the Council will:a) provide an update about the steps taken in reminding staff and having a plan about the need for annual EHC plan reviews and the process staff need to take following a review;
- 2. Within three months of the final decision the Council will:b) provide evidence of the monitoring plan for EHC plan reviews the Council has put into place and its implementation.
Case reference: 24 000 965
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- Provide training and guidance to staff about the need to keep all cases of part-time education provided through the Council’s Section 19 duty under review with a view to increasing this as a child’s capacity to learn increases
Case reference: 23 021 086
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council’s SEND Partnership and Assurance Board will review this decision to inform its work as part of the Council’s SEND Improvement Plan. The Council will provide the evidence this has happened.
Case reference: 23 020 740
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- Remind officers of the deadlines to comply with complaint responses. The Council should also consider whether it can put in place any measures to flag up complaints where the time to provide a response at Stage one and Stage two is going to lapse.
- Review how it considers complaints and concerns brought by parents and young people about special educational provision not being provided or delivered. The Council should consider what improvements to its service it can make to ensure these concerns are picked up upon.
Case reference: 23 017 474
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council agreed to review how it identifies and monitors necessary remedial action when responding to complaints about special educational needs and children’s social care. It should ensure that its complaints process considers what actions are necessary to resolve or remedy a complaint, and that it has an effective process for ensuring these actions are completed.
Last updated: 4 April 2015