Swindon Borough Council
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 57 complaints. Of these, 12 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 34 complaints. We investigated 11 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 11 complaints and upheld 10.
91% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 80% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for Swindon Borough Council's population, this is 4.2 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 2 out of 10 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
20% 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 8 cases.
In 8 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 Swindon Borough 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: 24 014 388
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Charging
- The Council will provide us evidence of its improved financial procedures related to Care Act financial assessments and sharing of information about care home costs. These process changes will help to ensure financial assessments are started in a timely manner and that those paying their own care home fees are aware of the costs at the earliest opportunity.
Case reference: 24 003 899
Category: Transport and highways
Sub Category: Highway repair and maintenance
- The Council will remind its highway maintenance and customer service teams about following its complaint policy, including to ensure a response is provided at Stage 1 and that a Stage 2 response is provided by a Service Manager which appropriately addresses all points and the outcome of complaints.
Case reference: 23 019 908
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Domiciliary care
- •Remind relevant staff of the importance of effective complaint handling.
- •Remind relevant staff of the Council duties under the Care Act 2014 relating to assessments and safeguarding concerns.
- •Remind relevant staff of the Council duties under the Mental Capacity Act 2005.
Case reference: 23 005 591
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council should review its processes to ensure it issues final EHC Plans within statutory timescales and minimises delays. It should send written guidance and reminders to appropriate staff members.
Case reference: 22 012 541
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will complete a review to ensure it meets its statutory duty to arrange Alternative Provision to children who are not attending school for reasons of illness, health or otherwise, which is expected to last for 15 school days or more without delay. Including, how it can monitor any arrangement made remains in place and suitable for children.
Case reference: 22 012 439
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Child protection
- The Council will review the operation of its statutory complaints procedure to identify where it can make changes to prevent delays.
- The Council will issue written reminders to relevant staff to ensure the response to an investigating officer’s report is sufficiently detailed and fully addresses the complainant’s desired outcomes.
Case reference: 22 010 540
Category: Education
Sub Category: Alternative provision
- The Council will amend its complaint response letter templates to ensure it signposts complainants to the next stage in the complaints process and to the Ombudsman upon its final response.
- The Council will provide training or guidance to Council staff responsible for school attendance to ensure they are aware of the Council’s duty under section 9 of the Education Act 1996 to arrange education for children out of school and the Ombudsman’s expectation that a council should act even if a child remains on roll at school.
Case reference: 22 010 414
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Looked after children
- The Council has agreed to send us an action plan setting out how it will avoid similar communication, sibling contact and complaints-handling problems happening again in future. In doing so, it will consider the possibility of staff training, staff supervision, and procedural changes.
Case reference: 22 005 953
Category: Environment and regulation
Sub Category: Antisocial behaviour
- The Council has agreed to introduce a Community Trigger process, policy and procedure.
- The Council will ensure information about antisocial behaviour procedures and the Community Trigger is available to the general public including on the Council’s website.
- The Council will carry out a review of its current procedures and advice to staff about how to respond to antisocial behaviour complaints, to ensure the Council is acting in line with government and local guidance and processes. It may want to consider whether a specific council policy on antisocial behaviour is required.
- The Council will send a reminder to its officers working in its Community Safety Partnership Team of the importance of keeping accurate and complete records.
Case reference: 22 001 043
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Other
- The Council investigated a complaint under the statutory children's complaints procedure about a failure to provide appropriate information about children prior to their adoption which resulted in it agreeing to a number of recommendations. The Council agreed to provide the Ombudsman with evidence it has carried out the recommendations agreed at stages 2 and 3 of the procedure. This includesreminding staff to handle data correctly;reminding staff and relevant partners to ensure prospective adoptors are aware of support mechanisms available to them and to manage expectations around the available support;reminding duty managers to keep written logs of the calls and advice given to adopters.give scrutiny to the matching and adoption process to identify any learning.
Last updated: 4 April 2015