South Gloucestershire Council
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 72 complaints. Of these, 30 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 30 complaints. We investigated 12 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 12 complaints and upheld 10.
83% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 80% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for South Gloucestershire Council's population, this is 3.3 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 4 out of 10 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
40% 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 5 cases.
In 5 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 South Gloucestershire 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.
Families in South Gloucestershire being denied the respite support they need - Ombudsman
Nearly a third of families of children with special needs in South Gloucestershire have not been receiving the respite care they need, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has discovered.
Council decided couple tried to avoid care fees by helping daughter buy house
South Gloucestershire Council has been asked to apologise to an elderly couple after deciding they deliberately deprived themselves of capital in order to reduce the husband’s care costs.
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: 24 010 764
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council has agreed to review its processes to ensure that in cases where children are receiving alternative educational provision for medical reasons, that the Council regularly reviews whether the provision is accessible and suitable.
Case reference: 23 017 552
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- Share this decision with relevant staff. Remind staff that complaints should be addressed within the timescales set out in the Council’s policy. Remind staff that a child does not necessarily need evidence from a medical consultant to qualify for alternative educational provision.
- The Council will review its policy on arranging alternative educational provision for children who cannot attend school due to health needs to make sure it is clear that a child does not necessarily need evidence from a medical consultant to qualify for alternative educational provision, and that it reflects the law and statutory guidance.
Case reference: 24 001 117
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- The Council will remind relevant officers of the need to ensure when it refers homelessness applicants to other councils, the referral contains sufficient information for that council to make appropriate enquiries into whether to accept the referral.
Case reference: 23 012 209
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council has agreed to carry out a review to ensure children with an EHC Plan with SENTA provision are receiving support.
Case reference: 23 006 318
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Assessment and care plan
- Council will provide evidence of practice note disseminated to improve social worker knowledge
Case reference: 23 004 788
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will provide evidence it has reminded managers to ensure funding decisions are made in a timely manner so that financial processes do not delay completion of annual reviews.
- The Council will provide evidence it has reviewed procedures to ensure there is appropriate staff cover when an officer is on leave.
Case reference: 23 003 479
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Assessment and care plan
- The Council has agreed to identify the action it is going to take to avoid delays in taking actionto meet urgent needs for care and support.
- The Council has agreed to review its care commissioning arrangements and create an action plan forimproving the availability of care providers to support people such as Mr X.
Case reference: 22 017 110
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will ensure relevant staff in the Inclusion and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities teams are able to recognise and respond to a complaint properly, with reference to our Guidance on Effective Complaint Handling for Local Authorities.
Case reference: 22 013 954
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Disabled children
- The Council has agreed to complete its review of its short break provision without delay to ensure it can provide appropriate respite provision for children and young people. This could include consideration of commissioning a new provider and working with neighbouring authorities.
Case reference: 22 013 576
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will review what steps it can take to reduce delays in obtaining educational psychology reports and produce an action plan to address this.
Last updated: 4 April 2015