Lincolnshire County Council
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 76 complaints. Of these, 25 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 35 complaints. We investigated 16 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 16 complaints and upheld 13.
81% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 89% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for Lincolnshire County Council's population, this is 1.7 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 2 out of 13 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
15% 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 8 cases.
In 8 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 Lincolnshire 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.
Ombudsman raps council for taking too long to change care home charging policy
A Lincolnshire family has been forced to complain to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman for the second time about the way a relative’s care home fees were charged because the county council failed to improve its policies quickly enough.
Council agrees to refund care costs for some people in short-term residential care
Lincolnshire County Council has agreed to refund some people it charged for short-term residential care following an investigation by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.
Ombudsman reminds councils about care home top-up fees
Councils across England are being reminded by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman of their duties under the Care Act to administer ‘top-up fees’ for people contributing towards relatives’ care.
Ombudsman calls for councils to be clear on care home costs
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman is reminding councils across England they must give families accurate information when placing relatives in care homes, following an investigation into a complaint against Lincolnshire County Council.
Married couple separated for 10 months due to lack of available homecare
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has asked Lincolnshire County Council to review other families’ cases after a man was separated from his wife for 10 months because there was no homecare available in his area.
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: 24 003 962
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Assessment and care plan
- The Council will review whether it has adequate provision for domiciliary care support and respite placement throughout its area to enable it to meet needs of service users, including those with challenging needs and requirements for consistency in service and carers.
Case reference: 24 007 139
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will take relevant action to ensure it properly considers and records its Section 19 duties to arrange suitable alternative education when a child is out of school and keeps this under regular review.
- The Council will review its process for when a child with an education, health and care plan is out of school, to ensure it meets its duty to secure the provision in the Plan as far as possible outside a school setting.
Case reference: 24 006 512
Category: Education
Sub Category: School transport
- Remind officers of the requirement to apply the ‘Dudley Test’ when considering school transport requests.
Case reference: 23 013 555
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Direct payments
- Remind relevant staff of the importance of completing timely reviews and issuing of support plans.
Case reference: 23 007 626
Category: Education
Sub Category: Alternative provision
- The Council agreed to introduce a process to ensure that before cases were considered by its Medical Support Panel (considering the needs of children out of school because of illness), it checked any relevant information held on its records in addition to that provided by the child's school. This was after the Council missed key information in this case provided by the child's parent which would have led the Panel to take a different decision.
- The Council also agreed to brief members of its Medical Support Panel on our expectation that when considering whether the Council needs to make alternative provision, it should have a clear picture of what provision the child's school is making for the pupil and if they can reasonably access this. The Council agreed this after this investigation found these matters were not clear when the case was presented to the Panel.
- The Council agreed to write to the Governing Body of the school in this case to clarify its expectations around reporting pupil absence, its medical needs policy and completion of referrals to the Medical Support Panel. It would also offer to meet with the school.
Case reference: 22 014 198
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council has agreed to review how it will ensure it is recording and communicating decisions about alternative provision.
Case reference: 22 007 447
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Residential care
- The Council will provide evidence of the way it monitors the care services and improvement plan at Vauxhall Court Care Home
Case reference: 23 010 460
Category: Education
Sub Category: School admissions
- The Council will remind panel members that they must consider the best interests of the individual child in accordance with the code and the guidance. And they should clearly set out the individual best interests decision in their decision letter
Case reference: 23 009 144
Category: Education
Sub Category: School admissions
- The Council will remind panel members that they must consider the best interests of the individual child in accordance with the school admissions code and the guidance.
Case reference: 23 009 013
Category: Education
Sub Category: School admissions
- The Council will remind panel members that they must consider the best interests of the individual child in accordance with the code and the guidance. And they should clearly set out the individual best interests decision in their decision letter.
Last updated: 4 April 2015