Sunderland City Council
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 52 complaints. Of these, 17 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 26 complaints. We investigated 9 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 9 complaints and upheld 6.
67% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 81% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for Sunderland City Council's population, this is 2.1 upheld decisions per 100,000 residents.
The average for authorities of this type is
4.7 upheld decisions per 100,000 residents. -
Satisfactory remedies provided by the Council
In 1 out of 6 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
17% satisfactory remedy rate.
This compares to an average of 13% in similar authorities.
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Compliance with Ombudsman recommendations
We recorded compliance outcomes in 4 cases.
In 4 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 Sunderland City 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.
No reports published
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: 24 014 625
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will provide the Ombudsman with a summary report of the action it has taken, or intends to take, to ensure alternative support is provided when a placement breaks down.
Case reference: 23 013 021
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council should issue written reminders to relevant staff to ensure they are aware of:•the timescales set out in the Council’s complaints policy; and •the guidance which states councils must notify the child’s parent of its decision to maintain, amend or discontinue the EHC Plan within four weeks of the review meeting.
Case reference: 23 012 499
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Residential care
- As part of its commissioning role the Council should ensure the Care Provider has reminded staff and if appropriate provided training about:the importance of where relevant risk assessing residents before changing care plans; and appropriate record keeping.
Case reference: 23 010 640
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Residential care
- The Council will share with the Ombudsman the step it has taken as a result of its safeguarding and complaint investigation to ensure its Adult Social Care team: 1.reallocates social workers to cases in circumstances where a staff member is away or absent;2.accurately records case notes following calls, meetings or communications with individuals or those acting on their behalf; and 3.an update on its proposed case audits to ensure cases are appropriately allocated, notes are kept, and cases have been progressed.
Case reference: 23 001 867
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Looked after children
- The Council has agreed to carry out the stage three recommendation which said “discuss the concerns raised by the review panel about the reports provided by the Independent Officer and Independent Person”.
Case reference: 22 018 067
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Residential care
- The Council should ensure relevant staff are aware of their responsibilities when considering requests for increased support for service users.
Case reference: 22 016 100
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Residential care
- The Council has agreed to consider training and guidance for staff on completing safeguarding investigations and to show how it has ensured the recommendations it made to the care home following the safeguarding investigation have been implemented.
Case reference: 22 014 725
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Charging
- The Council will remind adult social care staff to refer customers to the finance team after they have attended a continuing healthcare meeting resulting in the NHS withdrawing funding.
Case reference: 22 012 913
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- Provide evidence to the Ombudsman of the action taken to improve the monitoring of home tuition and alternative placements to ensure they are meeting children’s needs.
Case reference: 22 005 590
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Residential care
- The Council will review a council commissioned care home's record keeping as part of its next planned quality assurance visit, to assure itself the care home is keeping accurate and complete records for residents in their care.
- The Council will review its adult social care complaints handling procedures to ensure officers responding to complaints are appropriately trained to investigate complaints and provide comprehensive responses in line with its policy.
Last updated: 4 April 2015