West Sussex County Council
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 202 complaints. Of these, 49 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 72 complaints. We investigated 81 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
-
Complaints upheld
We investigated 81 complaints and upheld 72.
89% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 89% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for West Sussex County Council's population, this is 8% 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 8 out of 72 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
11% satisfactory remedy rate.
This compares to an average of 10% in similar authorities.
-
Compliance with Ombudsman recommendations
We recorded compliance outcomes in 62 cases.
In 62 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 West Sussex 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.
Disabled boy missed out on education and support because of poor council practice
A West Sussex boy missed out on vital support because the county council decided he had the ‘wrong’ type of disabilities, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has reported.
Councillors considered wrong Ombudsman report
Councillors in West Sussex have been asked to revisit an Ombudsman’s decision, after they considered the wrong version of a critical report at a council meeting.
Councils reminded of their duty to provide alternative education
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman is reminding council school attendance teams that their duty to provide alternative education may arise for reasons other than exclusion and illness.
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: 24 012 207
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will put together an action plan detailing what action it is or has been taking to reduce the delays of issuing draft and final amended Education, Health and Care Plans following annual review meetings.
Case reference: 24 008 795
Category: Education
Sub Category: School transport
- The Council will ensure it has processes in place to follow up Tribunal orders and make sure they are fully implemented.
- The Council will ensure transport officers understand they can provide financial remedies (in addition to reimbursing mileage) via the complaints process and do need to signpost complainants to make insurance or litigation claims when there has been fault by the Council causing injustice.
Case reference: 24 007 403
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Direct payments
- By training or other means remind relevant staff of the importance of completing service users’ care needs reassessments and mental capacity act assessments in a timely manner.
Case reference: 24 004 519
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Assessment and care plan
- Provide an action plan showing the steps the Council has taken or intends to take to ensure cases are now being allocated promptly and that it is completing financial assessments within its four week target time.
Case reference: 24 003 896
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Assessment and care plan
- Within three months, the Council should consider the lessons learned from this complaint. It should write to Mr B and set out the action it has already taken, and any further planned action, in relation to:• ensuring s12 medical recommendations have not expired / are about to expire when a repeat MHA assessment is carried out by an AMHP • ensuring complaints about s12 doctors under the MHA are routed to the appropriate organisation to investigate and respond to.
Case reference: 24 003 881
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will remind staff about aspects of good complaint handling including checking the facts of the complaint and not misusing stock responses, providing realistic timescales for actions and keep complainants informed of delays.
Case reference: 24 002 369
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Other
- Review processes to ensure that suitable information is available to service users, their families and council staff to ensure similar fault does not arise again.
Case reference: 24 001 520
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Direct payments
- The Council will send a reminder to officers about what the care and support statutory guidance says about service users being able to have other people present at a review should they wish them to do so.
Case reference: 23 021 450
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will review, or share the outcome of any recent review, of alternative provision placements available within the Council’s area for children with complex special educational needs. This is to ensure it can adhere to its duties under Section 19 of the Education Act 1996 without delay. If the Council find it lack alternative provision placements it should set out an action plan with how it intends to address this.
- The Council will share with the Ombudsman the steps the Council had taken and intends to take to address backlogs in its complaints handling, including an update on its current backlogs.
Case reference: 23 020 491
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- Provide or produce a plan to confirm the actions taken to ensure EHC Plans are issued within statutory timescales including what actions the Council are taking to address the delays in allocating cases to Educational Psychologists.
Last updated: 4 April 2015