Shropshire Council
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 79 complaints. Of these, 33 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 31 complaints. We investigated 15 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 15 complaints and upheld 9.
60% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 80% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for Shropshire Council's population, this is 2.7 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 0 out of 9 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 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 Shropshire 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.
County man forced to live in car because of council errors
A Shropshire man was homeless for too long because the council did not understand its responsibilities towards him, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has found.
Village cricketers forced to move because of planning error
A village cricket club has been forced to find a new venue after planners at Shropshire Council failed to put in place measures to prevent balls hitting a new house when it approved planning permission, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has found.
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: 24 000 454
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- Issue a reminder to staff that the duty to provide suitable alternative educational provision under Section 19 remains with the Council.
Case reference: 23 007 164
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Residential care
- Review its Appointeeship Policy to clarify when best interest decisions should be taken.
Case reference: 23 001 890
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Assessment and care plan
- The Council has agreed to identify the action it will take to ensure the relevant parties are properly informed when contributing to best interest decisions, and to ensure that reasons for best interests decisions are recorded, especially when the decision is disputed.
Case reference: 23 001 704
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Other
- The Council failed to complete stage two of the complaint procedurein line with the statutory timescales. It has already taken action to improveits services. It will provide the Ombudsman with evidence it has improvedtimeliness in its stage two response in the children’s statutory complaintprocedure as a result of its service improvements.
Case reference: 22 013 828
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Assessment and care plan
- The Council will send a reminder to its social workers and other officers working on assessments that, when there are delays in meeting care and support needs, we would usually expect to see evidence of the assessor revisiting the plan with the service user and, for example, considering interim measures.
Case reference: 22 013 591
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Direct payments
- The Council will provide staff training on the Council's duties to meet needs identified in Care Act assessments, and the need to consider alternatives to direct payments when it becomes clear these are not working.
Case reference: 22 004 958
Category: Planning
Sub Category: Planning applications
- Review its policy for leasing properties to ensure it checks properties have the correct planning permissions for their proposed use and meet the relevant building regulations.
Case reference: 22 006 598
Category: Education
Sub Category: School transport
- The Council is updating its policy on safe walking routes for home to school transport to ensure it is compliant with statutory guidance and Road Safety GB guidelines and to ensure officers conduct assessments of the whole route, including large roads and road crossings, which to date have wrongly been excluded from its policy.
- The Council will revisit how it handles school transport appeals to ensure they are conducted fairly and impartially in line with statutory guidance and each case is considered on its own merits.
Case reference: 22 002 667
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Assessment and care plan
- The Council will remind staff to ensure a receiving care home confirms it has received sufficient information about a potential resident, and has agreed it can meet their needs, before confirming a placement.
- The Council will remind staff to ensure that representatives are involved in decisions about future care home placements and that this is noted in the case records, particularly in cases where there is a Lasting Power of Attorney in place for a person who lacks capacity.
Case reference: 22 002 147
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Assessment and care plan
- The Council has agreed to ensure staff are trained in autism in accordance with the guidance to the Autism Act 2009.
Last updated: 4 April 2015