Northumberland County Council
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 109 complaints. Of these, 35 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 56 complaints. We investigated 18 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 18 complaints and upheld 15.
83% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 80% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for Northumberland County Council's population, this is 4.6 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 0 out of 15 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
0% 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 Northumberland 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.
Northumberland to look again at transport for teens following Ombudsman investigation
Northumberland County Council has agreed to look again at families’ applications for school transport for teenagers with special educational needs after the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman found its policy was flawed.
Northumberland council asked to look again at man’s disability expenses
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has asked Northumberland County Council to reconsider how it supports a man with disabilities after its failings left him unable to go on holiday.
Northumberland council failed to assess vulnerable young children at risk of harm
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has criticised Northumberland County Council for the way it treated a family in crisis.
Northumberland Council to review its complaints procedure
Northumberland Council has been asked to improve its Children’s Services complaints procedure following an investigation by the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO).
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: 24 007 546
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Other
- A support service commissioned by the Council failed to update its riskassessments and share key information with a service user in the weeksbefore they died. The NHS Trust that jointly provided the service then failed toinclude some key information about the service user's case in its internal review and mademistakes in its submissions to the coroner. The Council has agreed to show that the support service it commissions has sent its risk assessment policy to all its staff, along with the Ombudsman's final decision on this case.
- The Council has agreed to reiterate to all staff at the support service, the importance of sharing information as part of multi-agency working and updating risk assessments in response to key information such as hospital admissions and updates from family and carers.
- The Council has agreed to show that it has reminded staff at the support service of the importance of following up promptly on contact which indicates an increased risk to a service user, such as reports from concerned family members.
- The Council has agreed to demonstrate that the NHS Trust it commissions partly to provide the support service, will show that it has considered how to improve its processes for double checking information sent to coroners, to ensure against mistakes in documentation.
- The Council has agreed to provide evidence from the NHS Trust - which partly commissions the support service - to show it has changed its policy so that family members and carers are now routinely consulted as part of the Trust's internal reviews of cases where a service user has died.
Case reference: 24 005 014
Category: Education
Sub Category: Alternative provision
- • Provide guidance to staff to consider any action required under the Council’s statutory duties when it becomes aware of non-attendance at schools, and to record all actions, communication and decision making as part of this consideration.
Case reference: 24 004 200
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Fostering
- The Council will provide evidence of the action taken for any outstanding points from its action plan relating to service improvements in the fostering service. If the service improvements are ongoing, the Council should provide an anticipated timescale for completion.
Case reference: 24 000 673
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- The Council will provide us with an explanation about how it will ensure the same fault does not happen again
Case reference: 24 000 306
Category: Education
Sub Category: School transport
- The Council will provide relevant staff training in making and recording decision-making and the importance of writing decision letters to ensure they give clear reasons for the decisions made. This will help to ensure it provides detailed reasons to people about the decisions it makes so there is a clear understanding about how the decision was reached.
- The Council will remind relevant staff of the importance of signposting to the Ombudsman at the end of the appeals procedure. This will help to ensure people know how they can escalate the matter further if they are unhappy.
Case reference: 23 019 694
Category: Transport and highways
Sub Category: Parking and other penalties
- The Council agreed to review its disabled parking bay policy to ensure it:allows the Council to take into account the accessibility of any existing off-street parking in light of an applicant’s disability; clearly sets out how it will consider any neighbour objections when deciding applications, ensuring any objections are weighed appropriately against other aspects of the application;properly takes into account the Council’s duties under the Equalities Act and Human Right’s Act in all cases; andproperly records its consideration of applications, including what weight it gives to different evidence.
- The Council agreed to provide training to all staff responsible for deciding parking bay applications on:any changes the Council makes to its policy following its review;the importance of considering and weighing all aspects of an application before making a decision and not applying any blanket rules or approaches to applications; andhow to properly record and explain decisions they make.
Case reference: 23 017 490
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will consider the reasons for the delay in implementing the provision set out in the EHC plans and produce an action plan to ensure the issues are not repeated.
- The Council will consider the reasons for the delay in dealing with the complaint and produce an action plan to ensure the issues are not repeated.
Case reference: 23 014 712
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council was at fault for failing to have suitable oversight of how it funded a young person's education and in how it decided to reduce the young person's funding. The Council will put the Ombudsman's decision to its family and children's services overview and scrutiny committee. This will allow the committee to consider the impact of poor oversight in this case, which led to the complainant misspending a large sum of money allocated for the education of a young person with special educational needs. The committee will also consider what steps are necessary to prevent the faults the Ombudsman identified from happening again. The Council will send the Ombudsman an action plan setting out the steps it will take as a result of the committee's consideration.
Case reference: 23 010 355
Category: Planning
Sub Category: Planning applications
- Remind staff of the importance of adhering to the Council’s procedure note and our published guidance for local planning authorities, specifically regarding the importance of recording the reasons for planning decisions.
Case reference: 23 008 776
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council has agreed to remind relevant staff of the need for clear and comprehensive communication with parents regarding EHC Plan processes, including the role of the SEND Commissioning Panel, and any decisions.
Last updated: 4 April 2015