Plymouth City Council
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 82 complaints. Of these, 32 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 33 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 13.
76% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 80% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for Plymouth City Council's population, this is 4.8 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 13 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 9 cases.
In 9 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 Plymouth City 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 which ignored planning duties reminded of Ombudsman accountability role
Local authorities across England are being reminded that the Local Government Ombudsman has the same powers as the High Court to require evidence, after Plymouth City Council failed to comply with its recommendations.
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: 25 005 330
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Safeguarding
- Carry out a review of the service improvement plan to determine whether all actions have been completed/satisfied, and to take appropriate steps to ensure any outstanding actions are completed/resolved.
Case reference: 25 005 054
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- Share with relevant staff the Ombudsman’s good practice guidance on how we expect councils to fulfil their responsibilities to identify and arrange alternative educational provision: Supporting children out of school (October 2025)
- Remind relevant staff by way of a staff briefing or similar, that the Council remains responsible for making decisions about alternative educational provision, even when the child is enrolled at a school.
Case reference: 25 002 447
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will provide guidance to officers in education about the Council's section 19 duty and the need to ensure any part-time education put in place by schools is properly reviewed.
- The Council will provide guidance to officers dealing with complaints about the need to ensure complaint responses address all the concerns raised. That guidance should make clear where part of the complaint relates to matters which a tribunal will consider it is acceptable to exclude those in the response but that should not mean the remainder of the concerns are not addressed.
Case reference: 25 000 274
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will provide a copy of its existing SEND improvement plan.
Case reference: 24 021 532
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- Provide a copy of the Council’s plan to improve timeliness across its special educational needs and Education, Health and Care Plan service
- Remind staff of the Council’s duty to carry out Education, Health and Care Plan reviews, and to issue decision letters within the statutory timeframes,
- Remind staff to ensure they retain evidence to demonstrate the service’s consideration of the Council’s section 19 and section 42 duties
Case reference: 24 018 235
Category: Environment and regulation
Sub Category: Antisocial behaviour
- The Council will review its relevant procedures to ensure reports of nuisance and/or anti-social behaviour are not closed without contact with the complainant to check if the matter has been resolved.
- The Council will review its relevant procedures to ensure an adequate record is kept when complainants are advised of their private right of action under section 82 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
Case reference: 24 005 169
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- The Council has agreed to remind relevant staff that they should issue formal decisions acceptinghomeless duties at the earliest opportunity and provide training or guidance asneeded.
- The Council has agreed to remind relevant staff of the matters to consider and record when decidingwhether there is reason to believe an applicant, and particularly a veteran ofthe armed forces, might be in priority need such that an interim duty toaccommodate arises.
- The Council has agreed to remind relevant staff of the duty to complete an assessment and issue apersonalised housing plan when it is satisfied someone is homeless orthreatened with homelessness and provide training or guidance as needed.
- The Council has agreed to remind relevant staff that where it decides a homeless applicant is not inpriority need, it should issue a formal decision setting out the right ofreview and appeal.
Case reference: 24 003 766
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- Remind officers of the Council’s duty to carry out Education, Health and Care Plan reviews, and to issue decision letters and final plans within the statutory timeframes.
- Remind its officers to adhere to the Council’s complaints procedure.
- Carry out a review of its processes to ensure it is carrying out annual reviews, issuing decision notices and finalising amended Education, Health and Care Plans in line with the statutory guidelines.
Case reference: 24 001 826
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Looked after children
- The Council agreed to review why the identified delays took place and act to ensure they are not repeated on future cases.
- The Council agreed to review the management failings identified and act to ensure they are not repeated on future cases.
Case reference: 24 001 120
Category: Transport and highways
Sub Category: Highway repair and maintenance
- The Council agreed that it would undertake a review of the communications it has with those who report highway disrepair. This would focus on two issues. First, the quality of information provided to those reporting highway disrepair to see whether it is providing sufficient reasons when closing enquiries. Second, to consider the options given to those reporting disrepair to query or challenge the reply they are given when their enquiry is closed. The Council agreed to report back to us on any action taken, or that it proposed to take, further to this review.
Last updated: 4 April 2015