Staffordshire County Council
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 150 complaints. Of these, 44 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 53 complaints. We investigated 53 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 53 complaints and upheld 44.
83% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 89% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for Staffordshire County Council's population, this is 4.9 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 44 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
5% 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 47 cases.
In 47 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 Staffordshire 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.
Staffordshire council missed multiple deadlines reviewing girl’s special needs plans
Staffordshire council’s consistently poor administration of a county teen’s special educational needs plan left her college unable to properly support her, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has found.
Council’s decision-making criticised during school transport investigation
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has asked Staffordshire County Council to reconsider whether it pays for transport to get a teenager, who has autism, to her college some 25 miles away.
Staffordshire fails to complete agreed remedy following Ombudsman complaint
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has criticised Staffordshire County Council for failing to apologise to a woman in good time following an earlier investigation.
Thousands of vulnerable Staffordshire people deprived of their liberty without proper assessment
Staffordshire County Council’s decision not to assess some vulnerable people who may have been unlawfully deprived of their liberty has been criticised in an investigation by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.
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: 24 023 456
Category: Education
Sub Category: Alternative provision
- The Council will, using this case as an example, issue updated guidance to staff that clearly sets out:the Council’s statutory duties under S19 of the Education Act 1996;the Council’s statutory duties under S42 of the Children and Families Act 2014; andshare the Ombudsman’s focus report Out of school, out of sight?
- The Council will consider reviewing its policies and procedures to ensure it retains oversight and control of its section 19 duties and section 42 duties.
Case reference: 24 023 155
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- •remind relevant staff of the procedures and timescales involved in completing phase transfer reviews
Case reference: 24 022 715
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will provide us with monthly figures for educational psychology advice requests and response times for quarters one, two and three of 2025.
Case reference: 24 021 778
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will ensure it has a robust process in place to ensure phase transfer reviews do not impact on the Council's compliance with its statutory duty in other areas of the Education, Health and Care Plan process.
- The Council will ensure it has a process in place to quickly identify any cases which need to be reallocated due to staff absence. The process should include prompt identification of cases, and correspondence with the family to ensure communication is not impacted due to staff absence.
Case reference: 24 017 205
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Charging
- The Council has greed to amend its policy to ensure in no longer restricts limits on the amount of disability related expenditure it will consider to the level of disability benefit received by the person.
Case reference: 24 016 560
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will develop an action plan which sets out how it plans to address the ongoing delays with completing annual reviews of Education, Health and Care Plans, and ensure statutory timeframes are met.
Case reference: 24 016 283
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Charging
- The Council should remind officers, in writing, to ensure the views of persons who are interested in the care of an individual are considered and recorded when completing adult social care assessments.
Case reference: 24 015 869
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will complete staff training to ensure all relevant staff are aware of the two-part legal test set out in section 36(8) of the Children and Families Act 2014, which must be considered when the Council decides whether it should carry out an Education, Health and Care needs assessment. This training should include details of how staff should record their consideration of the legal test and how to correctly explain the two-part legal test when communicating with parents and young people.
- Where the Council uses template letters to explain refusal to assess decisions, this template letter should be amended to ensure it accurately reflects the two-part legal test which must be met for the Council to carry out an Education, Health and Care needs assessment.
Case reference: 24 013 429
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Charging
- The Council will ensure the information on its website and in leaflets and letters about Deferred Payment Agreements:a) is detailed and clear;b) includes information about Disposable Income Allowance as well as Personal Expenses Allowance and how the Council ring-fences these sums.
Case reference: 24 012 158
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- • Provide guidance to staff to ensure all complaints are dealt with within the timescales set out in its complaints procedure.
- • Provide guidance to staff to ensure EHC Plans are issued within statutory timescales.
Last updated: 4 April 2015