Suffolk County Council
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 186 complaints. Of these, 38 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 68 complaints. We investigated 80 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 80 complaints and upheld 75.
94% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 89% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for Suffolk County Council's population, this is 9.7 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 6 out of 75 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 62 cases.
In 62 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 Suffolk 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.
Suffolk to apologise to family for failing to educate girl for 18 months
Suffolk County Council has not done enough to provide an education to a young girl with special educational needs, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has found.
Ombudsman tells Suffolk County Council to improve support for children who can’t go to school
Suffolk County Council needs to make improvements “as a priority” to the way it provides alternative education to children who can’t go to school, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) has warned.
Suffolk girl with special educational needs left without vital therapy
A Suffolk girl did not receive vital Occupational Therapy for nearly two years because of council confusion, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has found.
Ombudsman reminds councils of proper process for supporting vulnerable people at assessment meetings
Councils are being reminded by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman that vulnerable people can choose who supports them through care reviews, after Suffolk County Council halted assessments for a couple’s care and support plans because of a dispute.
Autistic teen forced to move schools because of lack of resources
An autistic teenager was moved from her residential special school midway through her studies because of poor planning by Suffolk County Council, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has found.
Woman charged for hours of care she did not receive
A Suffolk woman, who was charged for homecare despite workers falsifying records, should have some of her fees refunded, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has said.
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: 24 008 929
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Other
- Review its approach or policy to providing support to meet the eligible outcomes of parent carers to ensure officers consider individual circumstances when deciding what support can be offered. This is to ensure the Council does not fetter its discretion when considering what support should be offered to meet eligible outcomes
Case reference: 24 011 007
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council agreed to send me details of how many others are affected by the difficulty in sourcing OT support and the steps the Council is taking to improve the supply of available therapists
Case reference: 24 008 941
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- By training or other means, remind officers of the Council’s approach to supporting young people outside compulsory school age to maintain their placement in the event they are struggling to attend. The Council should also remind officers that they should promptly explore what support should be offered when they are first notified of a young person struggling to attend their placement. This is to ensure the delays identified in this complaint do not recur.
- By training or other means, remind officers responsible for dealing with requests for stage two complaints that they should be satisfied the stage one response has adequately addressed the complaint when considering whether to investigate the complaint at stage two.
Case reference: 24 002 727
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will provide the Ombudsman with evidence of the action plan it has in place to address how it will meet statutory timescales for annual reviews.
Case reference: 24 001 995
Category: Education
Sub Category: School exclusions
- The Council has agreed to use this case as a case study in a relevant training session for officers to ensure they understand their duty to arrange suitable, full-time equivalent education, tailored to the specific needs and circumstances of each child requiring alternative education arranged by the Council.
Case reference: 24 001 931
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will review whether it has suitable processes in place to check that all elements of Section F in a new or amended Plan are fully in place, and that additional funding requests are consideredand decided in a timely way.
Case reference: 23 021 216
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council's Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Improvement Board will review this decision to inform its further work on improving the Council's Special Educational Needs and Disabilities services.
Case reference: 23 020 681
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will review its process of responding to the parental requests for extra assessments during their children’s EHC needs assessments. This is to ensure the Council responds in a timely manner and, when making its decision, applies the test set up in paragraph 9.49 of the SEND Code of Practice based on the SEND Regulations 2014 regulation 6(1)(h). The Council will provide us with the evidence it has done this.
- The Council’s SEND Improvement Board will review this decision to inform its further work on improving the Council’s SEND services. The Council will provide us with the evidence it has happened.
Case reference: 23 020 622
Category: Education
Sub Category: Alternative provision
- The Council will send a reminder to officers in education to remind them of the Council’s section 19 duty and the need to consider putting in place alternative provision when a child has been absent from school for more than 15 days in a school year.
Case reference: 23 019 930
Category: Education
Sub Category: Alternative provision
- The Council will remind officers about the need to keep the number of hours of tuition in place for children receiving only part-time hours under review.
Last updated: 4 April 2015