Service improvements

Surrey County Council

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2025 and 31 March 2026

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.

Showing 11 - 20 of 26 cases with service improvements

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Downloads the current filtered list of service improvement decisions for Surrey County Council as a CSV file.

  • Surrey County Council (24 021 698)

    Category: Education Date: 10-Nov-2025

    Summary

    Ms B complained the Council failed to provide her child the provision detailed in their Education, Health and Care Plan. We find the Council at fault for failing to provide the special educational provision detailed in the Education, Health and Care Plan. This has caused Ms B distress, frustration and uncertainty. The Council has agreed to apologise, make a symbolic payment, consider reimbursement of Ms B’s costs and make service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council will issue a written reminder to its relevant special educational needs and disability staff about the Council's section 42 duty to secure special educational provision.The Council will ensure it has a system in place to check the special educational provision is in place when a new or amended Education, Health and Care Plan is issued or there is a change in educational placement.The Council will ensure it has a system in place to check the special educational provision at least annually during the Education, Health and Care Plan review process.The Council will ensure it has a system in place to quickly investigate and act on complaints or concerns raised that the special educational provision is not in place at any time.

  • Surrey County Council (24 021 592)

    Category: Children's care services Date: 03-Jul-2025

    Summary

    Mr X complained the Council failed to consider his complaint at stage two of the statutory children’s complaints process. We find the Council at fault for failing to complete the statutory complaints process. This caused Mr X distress and frustration. The Council has agreed to apologise, progress Mr X’s complaint and make a symbolic payment to remedy the injustice caused by the faults identified.

    Service improvements

    The Council will share our Guide for Practitioners: Children's statutory complaints process with the relevant staff and ensure they are aware of the correct process to follow when managing children's services complaints which fall under the statutory process.

  • Surrey County Council (24 020 735)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 19-Oct-2025

    Summary

    Mr B complained the Council delayed financially assessing his mother, who I will refer to as Mrs C; gave him inaccurate financial information; and referred to mental capacity assessments as a formality. There was fault by the Council. It delayed allocating Mrs C’s case for a care assessment to be carried out. Because of the fault, there was a short delay in Mrs C receiving funding from the Council after her finances fell below the upper capital limit. This caused distress and worry to Mr B. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mr B. It has also agreed to send us evidence of a review it has carried out of its case allocation processes, and evidence of training it has provided to staff about the Mental Capacity Act.

    Service improvements

    The Council will send us evidence of a review it says it carried out of its allocation processes for cases where a capital threshold referral has been made, to ensure prevention of further delays. This will provide us with assurance the Council has carried out the review it says it has done. This will help to ensure care assessments are carried out in a timely manner and where applicable, Council funding will start before the service user's finances reach the upper capital limit.The Council will send us evidence of the training it says it has put in place in relation to the Mental Capacity Act. This will provide us with assurance the Council has carried out the training it says it has put in place. This will ensure relevant staff communicate with service users about mental capacity assessments in an appropriate, professional and consistent manner.

  • Surrey County Council (24 019 955)

    Category: Transport and highways Date: 23-Sep-2025

    Summary

    Mr X complained the Council failed to act to address flooding on a road he uses daily. We found evidence of delay by the Council and that it did not clearly communicate with Mr X. The Council agreed to apologise to Mr X and write to him explaining what action it will take to resolve the flooding.

    Service improvements

    The Council will produce a policy explaining how it will take enforcement action against riparian owners who do not meet their maintenance responsibilities.

  • Surrey County Council (24 019 438)

    Category: Children's care services Date: 14-Aug-2025

    Summary

    Mrs C complained the Council failed to offer an appropriate financial remedy after it upheld her complaint about the lack of support provided to her son, who I will refer to as D, for roughly three years. The Council was at fault. The financial remedy offered by the Council does not reflect the level of injustice caused to Mrs C and D. Because of the fault, Mrs C and D suffered distress and frustration. The Council has agreed to make symbolic payments and issue a staff briefing.

    Service improvements

    The Council will issue a staff briefing to adjudicating officers involved in the statutory complaint procedure. The briefing should remind them of the importance of outlining how financial remedies have been considered against our guidance, on cases where the outcome of stage two or the stage three panel has instructed the Council to do so. This will help to ensure there is no confusion caused to service users about how the the financial remedy has been calculated by the Council against our guidance. It will also help to ensure additional time and trouble is not caused to service users in chasing this information from the Council after the complaint procedure has concluded.

  • Surrey County Council (24 019 139)

    Category: Education Date: 21-Sep-2025

    Summary

    The Council failed to consult sufficient school placements for Ms X’s child, Y, when they stopped attending school. The Council also failed to properly consider whether the alternative provision it offered Y was reasonably accessible to them and failed to ensure Y received key therapies in their Education, Health and Care Plan. The Council’s faults have caused Y and Ms X uncertainty and caused Y to avoidably miss out on special educational provision for eleven months. The Council has paid Ms X £3,250 to recognise the injustice caused by these faults. We have also recommended that the Council make service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to share this decision with its education team and highlight it as a learning case in terms of failure to consult schools when it said it would, failure to arrange suitable alternative provision and failure to arrange the provision in a child's Education, Health and Care Plan.The Council has agreed to send the Ombudsman an action plan to demonstrate how it will prevent recurrence of these faults in future.

  • Surrey County Council (24 016 713)

    Category: Children's care services Date: 22-Jul-2025

    Summary

    Mrs X complained about how the Council has delivered social care for Y. The Council was at fault for not commencing a stage two statutory investigation under the Children Act 1989, causing distress, uncertainty and frustration to Mrs X. The Council has agreed to apologise, make a payment to recognise the uncertainty, conduct a stage two investigation, and act to prevent recurrence.

    Service improvements

    With reference to our Guide for Practitioners: Children’s statutory complaints process, the Council’s will remind its complaints team of the importance of directing complaints about children’s social care through the statutory three stage process.

  • Surrey County Council (24 016 511)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 05-Aug-2025

    Summary

    Mr X complained the Council failed to meet his eligible care needs for three months and it failed to attend borough council meetings about his housing. We found there was a lack of care provision which was Service Failure by the Council. We also found there was a failure to attend housing meetings after agreeing to do so. This was a lack of partnership working. The fault by the Council led to distress to Mr X. The Council agreed to apologise, make a distress payment and work on an action plan to avoid the same issues happening again.

    Service improvements

    The Council should produce a written action plan to address the issues we have highlighted with the duty team. It should determine what actions are needed to ensure care reviews take place when a case is with the duty team, how it will ensure duty team staff show professional curiosity when addressing queries about service user’s circumstances and, most importantly, how interactions and partnership working with other partner agencies and councils will be improved. The Council should present the action plan to an appropriate scrutiny committee, setting out what steps the Council intends to take to avoid the issues reoccurring for other service users.

  • Surrey County Council (24 015 469)

    Category: Education Date: 11-Jun-2025

    Summary

    Mr X complained that the Council unfairly restricted communication with him. The Council accepts it did not follow the correct process when it did this. We found the Council at fault. The Council has apologised and lifted the restrictions in response to Mr X's complaint. It has also agreed to carry out some service improvements.

    Service improvements

    Within one month of the decision, the Council will remind all relevant staff of the importance of following the Council’s process correctly to ensure communication restrictions are not imposed unfairly.

  • Surrey County Council (24 014 984)

    Category: Education Date: 02-Mar-2026

    Summary

    Mrs H complained the Council’s Adult Social Care and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Teams have not worked well together in providing her son with the support he needs. There has been delay, inaccuracies and a refusal to increase support. We uphold the complaint due to delays in assessments, approving direct payments, joint working and providing overnight respite. The Council has agreed to our recommendations for ways to remedy the injustice.

    Service improvements

    The complaint has highlighted poor joint working between the Council’s Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and Transitions Teams. A council officer (at a sufficiently senior level to make recommendations) should review what happened in this complaint. They should focus on whether there are any lessons to be learned about how Council teams work together in making decisions about meeting needs.

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