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.
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: 25 004 513
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Other
- The Council will remind staff dealing with complaints of the importance of following the statutory complaint procedure in relation to the education of looked after children.
Case reference: 25 003 208
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council has awarded a backdated personal travel budget.
Case reference: 25 000 703
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Assessment and care plan
- The Council will review the complaint and identify the issues that led to the individual being left without any adult care services provision. It will report back to the Ombudsman on the steps it will take to avoid similar issues happening in future.
Case reference: 24 021 698
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- 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.
Case reference: 24 021 592
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Other
- 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.
Case reference: 24 020 735
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Assessment and care plan
- 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.
Case reference: 24 019 955
Category: Transport and highways
Sub Category: Highway repair and maintenance
- The Council will produce a policy explaining how it will take enforcement action against riparian owners who do not meet their maintenance responsibilities.
Case reference: 24 019 438
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Disabled children
- 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.
Case reference: 24 019 139
Category: Education
Sub Category: Alternative provision
- 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.
Case reference: 24 016 713
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Disabled children
- 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.
Last updated: 4 April 2015