Worcestershire County Council
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 93 complaints. Of these, 23 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 37 complaints. We investigated 33 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 33 complaints and upheld 28.
85% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 89% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for Worcestershire County Council's population, this is 4.6% 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 28 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
7% 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 25 cases.
In 25 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 Worcestershire 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.
A Worcestershire child with significant and complex needs had to live in an unsuitable home for far longer than necessary because Bromsgrove and Worcestershire councils made a catalogue of errors when adapting a home to their needs.
A vulnerable looked after child with special educational needs missed out on five and a half terms of education and didn’t receive the therapy they needed for more than two years because staff at a council-owned company, Worcestershire Children First, had such a poor grasp of the SEND system.
Worcestershire stroke survivor left without support she needed
A Worcestershire woman who had had a stroke was left without appropriate care for 12 months because the county council took too long to set up her direct payments.
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has criticised the way Worcestershire County Council dealt with a mother’s complaint about the lack of alternative education provided for her son, when mainstream school was no longer suitable for him.
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has criticised the way Worcestershire County Council dealt with a mother’s complaint about the lack of alternative education provided for her son, when mainstream school was no longer suitable for him.
Family charged thousands of pounds for care a nursing home could not prove it had provided
Worcestershire County Council has been criticised by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman after a care home it contracted with charged a vulnerable dementia patient for care it could not prove it had provided.
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: 24 006 871
Category: Education
Sub Category: Alternative provision
- The Council has agreed to provide the Ombudsman with an explanation and evidence of how it has improved internal processes for considering its Section 19 responsibility and making the necessary arrangements to put alternative provision in place in a timely manner.
Case reference: 24 006 129
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council should remind officers of the needto complete EHC needs assessments within the statutory timescales.
Case reference: 24 005 022
Category: Education
Sub Category: Alternative provision
- Revise its procedures to ensure the education of children on part time tables is monitored effectively and kept under regular review so that education can be increased as soon as a child is ready.
Case reference: 24 002 995
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will review its processes and ensure it has clear procedures in place for how it carries out oversight of children with Education, Health and Care Plans who are not attending named placements to ensure it meets its Section 42 duty to provide the specialist provision set out in their Plans and the action it should take when the provision is not in place.
- The Council will provide training for all relevant officers on the Council’s duty under Section 42 of the Children and Families Act.
Case reference: 23 019 340
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- Provide guidance and training to staff about the importance of recognising and acting on information it receives detailing a child’s failure to access education. This guidance and training should focus on the Council’s responsibility to consider and act on its Section 19 when a child has been absent from school for 15 days, whether consecutive or cumulative.
- Provide guidance and training to staff about considering a child’s individual needs when considering what alternative provision of education is suitable for a child.
Case reference: 23 017 328
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- Issue guidance to appropriate officers to ensure that the relevant services are aware of when they should escalate cases where children are not receiving a full time education. This is to enable the Council to consider if it has a duty under section 19 of the Education Act to provide alternative provision for them.
- Review its procedures to ensure alternative provision which meets achild’s needs is made without delay in the event the Council has accepted aduty under section 19 of the Education Act.
- Review its complaints procedure to make clear that the Council may consider a complaint informally and to consider if a complaint which has been considered informally should then be considered at stage two in the event of escalation. This is to ensure transparency in how the Council considers complaints and to ensure the Council does not add an extra stage to the published complaints procedure.
Case reference: 23 015 086
Category: Education
Sub Category: School transport
- The Council will remind staff about the importance of providing clear and consistent information about possible transport implications from the decision to name parental preference in Section I of an EHC plan. Staff should also be reminded of the requirement to notify parents in writing of the possible need to review an EHC plan in the event the parent becomes unwilling or unable to fund the transport to their preferred placement.
Case reference: 23 014 942
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- Provide training to staff about the importance of ensuring any provisions detailed in Section F of a child's EHC Plan is quantifiable and specific.
Case reference: 23 009 513
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will put in place a process to track when annual reviews for EHC plans are due and to ensure cases are followed up on once a review has taken place.
Case reference: 23 009 011
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will remind officers the SEN Code of Practice says special educational provision included in Section F must be detailed and specific and should normally be quantified, for example, in terms of the type, hours and frequency of support and level of expertise.
- The Council will remind officers of its duty to make sure a child or young person receives the special educational provision set out in Section F of an EHC Plan, under Section 42 of the Children and Families Act 2014.
- The Council will review its processes to ensure it can show the special educational provision detailed in a young person's EHC Plan is in place, once a new EHC Plan is issued.
Last updated: 4 April 2015