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: 24 009 956
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council failed to arrange suitable education for a child when she was unable to attend school. The Council will review the systems it has in place to ensure it seeks and obtains the information required by its Special Educational Needs Decision-Making Group so that the Council can complete amendments to a child's Education, Health and Care Plan within the statutory timescales. The Council will identify where it needs to make improvements to its systems so that the faults identified in this decision do not occur again. It will provide the Ombudsman with details of improvements it has identified and when it will complete those actions by.
- The Council will review the systems it has in place to ensure it properly considers how it can work with schools to help them reintegrate children back into education when they have stopped attending and will otherwise require alternative provision. The Council will identify where it needs to make improvements to its systems so that the faults identified in this decision do not occur again. It will provide the Ombudsman with details of improvements it has identified and when it will complete those actions by.
Case reference: 24 009 953
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- the Council has agreed to remind its officers about its complainthandling procedures and timescales
Case reference: 24 008 290
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will remind staff in its special educational needs team to ensure agreed educational provision is put in place without unnecessary delay. This means planning and arrangements of such provision should start when the Council becomes aware a child’s or young person’s provision will no longer be arranged by a school.
- The Council should review its corporate complaints policy against the Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code. This is to ensure it operates it complaints process in line with the process and timescales set out in the code, or have good reasons to depart from the guidance.
Case reference: 24 007 738
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will put a process in place to ensure communication with parents during the Education, Health and Care Plan annual review process is not impacted by staff absences.
Case reference: 24 004 134
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will remind staff dealing with cases where it is aware a child is not attending school full-time it is the Council’s duty to ensure they receive a suitable education and keep cases of part-time education under review.
Case reference: 24 002 444
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Safeguarding
- The Council will remind relevant adult social care staff to ensure when seeking to limit contact between a client in a care home and their relatives they are clear with the family and care provider whether this is its recommendation to the family, or whether a formal best interests’ decision is required to introduce restrictions
- The Council will review its procedures, and ensure they are in line with the updated Care Quality Commission guidance of 2024, to ensure that where restrictions are placed on contact between a care home resident and their relatives/other visitors, the nature of the restrictions is communicated in writing to the person on whom the restrictions are imposed and the care provider, and restrictions are reviewed regularly.
Case reference: 23 017 647
Category: Transport and highways
Sub Category: Street furniture and lighting
- Remind staff about the need to consider the full powers available to it,including deciding to complete repairs itself, when deciding how to ensureutility providers complete highway repairs
- Review its processes and policies to ensure it is, where possible,encouraging utility companies to install utility covers which allow for complimentary tactilesurfaces
Case reference: 23 015 305
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council agreed to decide what changes are needed to its Education, Health, and Care (EHC) Plan processes, or staff training, to ensure it has systems in place to:check provision is in place when it issues a new or substantially different EHC Plan, or there is a change in educational setting; when a child with an EHC Plan is out of school, ensure it meets its duty to secure the provision in the Plan as far as possible outside a school setting; andproperly investigate complaints or concerns that provision is not in place at any time.
- The Council agreed to issue a reminder to staff in its Special Educational Needs and Disabilities service who respond to complaints, about its complaints procedure timescales.
Case reference: 24 000 475
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- Remind staff of the importance of meeting the statutory timescales for annual reviews.
Case reference: 23 020 424
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- Provide evidence that internal policy or procedure provides guidance to staff about how welfare checks are carried out for children out of school. This should include frequency of welfare visits.
- Share a copy of this decision with the SEND Team and ensure that a learning session takes place with all relevant staff.
Last updated: 4 April 2015