Leicestershire County Council
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 122 complaints. Of these, 46 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 36 complaints. We investigated 40 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 40 complaints and upheld 33.
83% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 89% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for Leicestershire County Council's population, this is 4.5 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 10 out of 33 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
30% 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 23 cases.
In 23 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 Leicestershire 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.
Leicestershire County Council has agreed to refund a mother’s school transport costs after the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman found flaws in the way it handled her application.
Leicestershire agrees to review processes after visually impaired woman left without support
Leicestershire County Council has agreed to Ombudsman recommendations to improve how it prepares social care and support plans after a severely visually impaired woman was left without the day-to-day support she needed for 21 months.
Ombudsman’s calls for more transparency over free nursery place ‘charges’
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman is urging councils to have better oversight of nurseries offering free early years places, after a nursery chain was found to be charging Leicestershire parents a ‘top-up fee’.
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: 24 007 343
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will share a copy of our decision and the Ombudsman’s Focus Report “Out ofschool, out of sight?” with relevant officers, to highlight good practice andidentify wider points of learning.
Case reference: 24 001 324
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Assessment and care plan
- Within one month of the date of the Ombudsmen’s final decision statement, the Council has agreed it will confirm the steps it has taken to remind staff about the need to follow the steps in its complaints policy, particularly about working with other organisations and with signposting to the Ombudsman.
Case reference: 24 013 530
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Charging
- The Council will remind relevant staff of the importance of providing as much information as possible about the likely costs of adult social care at the time they arrange the care and ensuring the make a full record of the advice and information given.
Case reference: 24 009 142
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council has agreed to consider if there is a systemic issue with delay in completing annual reviews and advise the Ombudsman if this is the case and if so, what steps the Council intends to take to ensure reviews are completed within statutory timescales.
Case reference: 24 001 615
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Assessment and care plan
- Within three months of my final decision statement, the Council will explain what action it will take to ensure it offers a choice of discharge locations to people and their families, in line with the relevant legislation and guidance; andensure discharge decisions properly take into account the wishes of the person and their families; andproperly record the reasons for any discharge decisions, ensuring this includes the individual circumstances of each case and the reasons if a choice cannot be offered.
- Within three months of my final decision statement, the Council will explain what action it will take to ensure the Care Home takes appropriate action to clarify a person’s dietary requirements as soon as there are any concerns raised; andensure the Care Home properly considered all relevant information when designing an appropriate pressure care plan
Case reference: 23 019 093
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- By training or otherwise remind relevant staff of the importance of arranging and securing any agreed personal budgets in a timely manner where provisions agreed in an Education, Health and Care Plans are to be delivered on the school or college premises.
Case reference: 23 017 894
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Charging
- Review the Council’s systems and practice to ensure it completes financial assessments in a timely manner.
- By training or other means remind relevant staff they must issue service users with written record of the financial assessment outcome at an early stage which clearly sets out their assessed contributions towards their care and details of how the payments will be made.
- Remind relevant staff of the importance and need to issue care cost invoices to service users, their families and/or representatives in a timely manner and as soon as practicable after they start receiving care.
Case reference: 23 015 739
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Residential care
- The Council will send a reminder to officers about the need to confirm decisions, such as those relating to when Court of Protection proceedings have been discontinued, in writing.
Case reference: 23 014 360
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Charging
- The Council will remind relevant staff that financial assessments to inform adult social care charging decisions should be completed in a timely manner.
Case reference: 23 013 577
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Other
- The Council will provide a copy of the updated guidance for professionals about referrals.
- The Council will provide a copy of the minutes of the meeting held on 3 April 2024 in which the Council shared learning about information sharing and anonymity. If the Council does not hold any minutes, it should place the item on the agenda for the next manager’s meeting and provide the respective minutes.
- The Council will deliver a staff training session, or a comprehensive briefing paper, to all staff responsible for dealing with and acting upon referrals relating to child protection. The staff training/briefing paper should focus on the Council’s responsibilities around information sharing as outlined in the published procedures.
Last updated: 4 April 2015