Surrey County Council
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 281 complaints. Of these, 60 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 108 complaints. We investigated 113 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 113 complaints and upheld 104.
92% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 89% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for Surrey County Council's population, this is 8.5% 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 14 out of 104 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
13% 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 91 cases.
In 91 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 Surrey 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.
National specialist shortage having profound impact on children with SEND and their families
The shortage of educational psychologists is having a significant impact on councils’ ability to set out the needs of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has said.
Surrey to apologise to family for not providing boy with proper education
Surrey County Council has agreed to review how it arranges and monitors special educational needs support for children and young people in the county following a Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman investigation.
Woman left to die alone in Surrey care home
An elderly woman was left to die alone by Surrey care home staff while her daughter was waiting in a nearby room, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has found.
Teenager with autism misses start of term when council cancels transport
A teenager who attends a special school missed the start of the school year because Surrey County Council did not tell his mum she needed to reapply for transport, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has found.
Surrey County Council twice failed to resolve issues for boy with special needs
Surrey County Council has been told to apologise again to the family of a boy with special educational needs because it failed to do what it promised to resolve problems highlighted in a previous Ombudsman complaint.
Family left without support for severely autistic young son by Surrey County Council
A Surrey family who struggled to cope with their disabled son’s behaviour were forced to begin legal action against the county council before it provided the right accommodation for him, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has found.
The Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) and Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) have issued a joint report on an investigation into Surrey County Council and Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Trust.
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: 24 007 581
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will remind staff in its Special Educational Needs and Disability team of the need to follow the Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations during the transferring in process, where it has adopted the Education, Health and Care Plan of a child or young person who has moved into the Council's area from another Council's area.
- The Council will remind staff dealing with complaints of the importance of putting forward a tangible remedy as a conclusion to the complaints process when identifying fault and injustice.
Case reference: 24 007 650
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will remind staff who deal with complaints of the importance of putting forward tangible and measurable resolutions when they have identified fault and injustice.
Case reference: 24 005 704
Category: Education
Sub Category: Alternative provision
- The Council will remind staff where they are aware a child is not attending school, it should consider each individual case and its Section 19 duty in accordance with relevant law and guidance. This includes exploring whether alternative provision can be increased at each opportunity to do so.
Case reference: 24 005 595
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will work with its partners in the Occupational Therapy service to analyse why the Council was unable to deliver the special educational provision in a child's Education, Health and Care Plan. The Council will explain to this office what steps it will take to address any problems identified.
Case reference: 24 004 945
Category: Planning
Sub Category: Planning applications
- The Council will remind officers dealing with complaints of the need to ensure all aspects of the complaint are responded to, particularly when a complaint has been summarised.
Case reference: 24 004 684
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Child protection
- The Council will provide an update and evidence of the introduction of a section 20 information leaflet for families and the review completed to ensure appropriate communication about section 20. Section 20 Childrens Act 1989 is where a child or young person may be accommodated by a council, usually with the agreement to the arrangement by those with parental responsibility.
Case reference: 24 004 159
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Assessment and care plan
- Issue a reminder to all staff about the Council's recording policy and the need to respond to emails in a timely manner.
Case reference: 24 002 523
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will review its process for securing special educational provision, such as speech and language therapy and occupational therapy, which cannot be delivered within a mainstream school setting and ensure there is a system in place to secure provision and funding without delay.
Case reference: 24 000 853
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council has agreed to carry out a lessons learned review to understand why there were such significant delays in finalising a child's Education Health and Care Plan, implementing the funding for their teaching assistant, and in consulting specialist school placements.
- The Council has agreed, following its lessons learned review, to make an action plan setting out what steps will be taken to prevent these delays occurring for children and parents in future.
Case reference: 23 021 496
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council has agreed to provide the Ombudsman with evidence of the service improvements it said it had made as a result of the experience the complainant had received.
Last updated: 4 April 2015