Complaints and feedback annual report 2024 to 2025
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Adult Social Care and Health Complaints and Feedback Team
East Sussex County Council
St Anne's Crescent
County Hall
Lewes BN7 1SW
Phone: 01273 481242
1. Purpose of report
The purpose of this report is to meet the statutory requirements of the Local Authority Social Services and National Health Service Complaints (England) Regulations 2009. Councils with statutory social services have a responsibility to produce a public annual complaints report. The report covers the period from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025. We use this report to identify trends, themes and monitor learning and actions. This helps us improve how we provide care and support to people who receive support from us.
The Council has a duty to ensure that any individual (or appropriate person acting on their behalf with their consent, or a legal basis to do so) who wishes to make a complaint about the actions, decisions or apparent failings of a local authority’s social care provision has access to the Adult Social Care Statutory Complaints Procedure.
This year, Adult Social Care and Health (ASCH) provided support to over 29,500 people aged 18 and over living in East Sussex. The department also has lead responsibility for safeguarding adults at risk of harm. In 2024/25, ASCH received over 15,300 reports of concern about potential adult abuse.
2. Summary
This year the Complaints and Feedback Team recorded 362 complaints about ASCH, compared with 376 last year. Of the 362, 48% (175) were partially or fully upheld. The detail of the complaints are in sections 4 and 5.
- Over a third of complaints 38% (136) received a response within our target timescale of 10 to 20 working days, compared to 31% in 2023 to 2024.
- 60% of complaints (219) did not receive a response within the timescales. In these cases, complainants were given progress updates pending the final response.
- 36 ASCH complaints went to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO). Of these, in only 3 complaints (8.3% of those that went to LGSCO), the LGSCO made additional recommendations to remedy the impact on the people involved and improve services for people who might use the service in the future. This means that only 0.8% of the total number of complaints received by ASCH resulted in additional remedies awarded by the LGSCO. We believe that this reflects ASCH’s strong focus on working with people to meet their desired outcomes from their complaint and our focus on resolution.
For the first time this year, our complaints report has:
- an analysis of people’s demographic background in section 9
- a new section on enquiries managed by our ‘duty’ function, where our strong performance aligns with LGSCO recommendations for good practice in this area. We resolved 570 enquiries via our Duty Team, ensuring that people who contacted us but did not necessarily want to make a complaint, got the outcome that they wanted in a timely way.
This year, our learning has focused on:
- strengthening communication
- improving social care staff handover processes
- improving communication about charging and financial assessments, and
- providing refresher training on complaints handling to ASCH staff.
We have also shared a small selection of compliments from 2,651 received in 2024 – 2025 across ASCH services and teams. This reflects a very high proportion of people who appreciate the support they receive from us and is reflective of the great practice across our teams.
3. Key data
The Complaints Team manage:
- compliments
- complaints
- complaints that go to the LGSCO
- enquiries from elected Members
- duty enquiries – where we try to resolve issues for people without the need for a ‘formal’ complaints process
| Activity | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Compliments total | 1,921 | 1,855 | 2,307 | 2,651 |
| Complaints total | 342 | 430 | 376 | 362 |
| Complaints upheld fully and partially | 149 (44%) | 218 (51%) | 168 (45%) | 175 (48%) |
| Complaints not upheld | 171 (50%) | 186 (43%) | 172 (46%) | 180 (50%) |
| LGSCO complaints - fault found | 17 | 6 | 13 | 8 |
| Member enquiries | 169 | 226 | 237 | 239 |
| Duty enquiries (service requests) | 355 | 555 | 560 | 570 |
4. Overview of complaints
4.1 Target response times for ASCH
Our target time for responding to complaints is 10 to 20 working days. This year:
- 38% (136) of complaints that received a response within our target times of 10 to 20 working days, compared to 31% in 2023-2024.
- 60% of complaints (219) did not receive a response within the timescales, compared to 59% in 2023-2024. In these cases, complainants were given progress updates pending a final response being provided.
- 2% (7) were still open at the time of reporting.
- Timescales for independent providers to respond were slightly longer than last year, rising to 47 working days from 46 working days. These complaints would typically involve other services too, thereby increasing the time taken to respond to them.
- The proportion of complaints upheld in full or in part has increased from 45% in 2023-2024 to 48% in 2024-2025.
Going forward we will review our practice and take steps to try to improve response times for complaints.
4.2 Complaints about ASCH services and teams
This table sets out the number of complaints recorded for each service provided by ASCH, and the percentage of complaints upheld in full or part. It does not include complaints about external contracted providers, which can be found in section 5.
| Service or team | Total number of complaints 2023-2024 | % fully or partially upheld 2023-2024 | Total number of complaints 2024-2025 | % fully or partially upheld 2024-2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assessment and Care Management | 93 | 35% | 113 | 43% |
| Community Learning Disability and Transition Teams | 30 | 53% | 20 | 45% |
| Hospitals, Finance and Continuing Health Care | 120 | 55% | 110 | 52% |
| Learning Disability Directly Provided Services | 2 | 100% | 1 | 100% |
| Mental Health Services | 51 | 37% | 62 | 53% |
| Older People's Directly Provided Services | 6 | 66% | 2 | 0% |
| Planning, Performance and Engagement | 3 | 67% | 4 | 0% |
| Safeguarding Development Team | 2 | 0% | 1 | 0% |
| Strategy, Commissioning and Supply Management | 26 | 42% | 12 | 66% |
| Total | 33 | 45% | 325 | 48% |
4.3 What were the complaints about?
Complaints are categorised by the type of work complained about and then the problem. This table shows the number of complaints by type of work.
| Complaint type | Number of complaints in 2023/24 | % of total 2023/24 | Number of complaints in 2024/25 | % of total 2024/25 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Allocation of funding / grants | 11 | 3% | 13 | 4% |
| Assessment | 80 | 24% | 65 | 20% |
| Blue badge appeal | 1 | 0.3% | 1 | 0.3% |
| Carer's assessment | 3 | 0.9% | 1 | 0.3% |
| Consultation and engagement | 0 | 0% | 1 | 0.3% |
| Contracts | 1 | 0.3% | 1 | 0.3% |
| Data protection | 0 | 0 | 5 | 1.5% |
| Direct payments administration | 6 | 2% | 17 | 5.5% |
| Equipment - adaptations | 1 | 0.3% | 4 | 1.5% |
| Equipment - daily living | 12 | 4% | 11 | 3.5% |
| Hospital discharge | 23 | 7% | 16 | 5% |
| Information provision | 31 | 9% | 18 | 5.5% |
| Invoicing | 46 | 14% | 33 | 10% |
| Mental capacity assessment | 1 | 0.3% | 3 | 1% |
| Policy | 10 | 3% | 8 | 2.5% |
| Provision of service | 78 | 23% | 93 | 29% |
| Review | 3 | 1% | 1 | 0.3% |
| Safeguarding enquiry | 15 | 5% | 19 | 6% |
| Staff actions / behaviour | 11 | 3% | 15 | 5% |
4.4 Top three themes of complaints
4.4.1 Provision of service
The biggest number of complaints related to provision of service. We received 93 complaints (29% of all complaints). 41 of these complaints (44%) were upheld or partially upheld.
| Complaint primary cause | Number of complaints | % of total complaints received |
|---|---|---|
| Not to the quality or standard expected | 40 | 43% |
| Communication and information concerns | 23 | 24% |
| Delay | 17 | 18% |
4.4.2 Assessment
The second biggest area of complaints related to assessment, which was 20% of all complaints received (65 complaints in total). 30 (46%) were upheld or partially upheld.
Our assessment functions include:
- eligibility assessments for social care support, including the value of a personal budget
- mobility assessments for the provision of a Blue Badge
- financial assessments, which calculate how much someone will pay towards their support
| Assessment complaint type | Number of complaints in 2023/24 | % of total complaints received 2023/24 | Number of complaints in 2024/25 | % of total complaints received 2024/25 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Financial | 36 | 45% | 27 | 42% |
| Social care | 34 | 42% | 22 | 33% |
| Blue Badge | 10 | 13% | 16 | 25% |
| Assessment complaint primary cause | Number of complaints | % of total complaints |
|---|---|---|
| Delay | 17 | 26% |
| Not the quality or standard expected | 14 | 21% |
| Unhappy with decision | 10 | 15% |
4.4.3 Invoicing
The third biggest area of complaints related to invoicing. We received 33 complaints (10% of all complaints received). 19 complaints (54%) were upheld or partially upheld.
| Invoicing complaints | Number of complaints | % of total complaints received |
|---|---|---|
| Disagreement with charge received | 25 | 75% |
| Communication and information concerns | 3 | 9% |
5. Complaints about external providers
We pay for external providers to deliver a lot of our care and support services. This includes:
- residential care
- nursing care
- supported accommodation
- home care
- telecare equipment.
We have recorded 37 complaints this year about external providers. This is lower than last year, when 43 complaints were recorded.
Of the complaints recorded this year, 29 related to community services including:
- home care providers: 23
- telecare provider: 3
- supported accommodation: 1
- cleaning / clearing provider: 1
- warm home check provider: 1
8 complaints were about residential care providers.
The number of complaints recorded by the department for external providers is low compared with the number of services delivered.
We expect providers to be fair, open and responsive to all complaints about their service, and we use the learning and actions for all of the teams across ASCH, where appropriate.
5.1 Response times
The average time for independent sector providers to respond to complaints has increased slightly from 46 days in 2023 to 2024 to 47 days in 2024 to 2025.
- 3 of the complaints (8%) received a response within 10 working days
- 6 of the complaints (16%) received a response within 20 working days
- 28 of the complaints (76%) exceeded the 10-20 working day timescale. People were kept updated if there was a delay.
5.2 Outcomes of complaints
Out of the 37 complaints received for external providers:
- 17 (46%) of the complaints were upheld in full or part
- 20 (54%) were not upheld.
5.3 Types of complaints about external providers
Of the 17 complaints upheld, concerns were about one or more of the following:
- charging or invoicing issues
- service fell below expectation
- delay in provision of service
- staff behaviour or actions
6. Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman
Once people have received a final response from ASCH, where a person remains dissatisfied, they can ask the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman (the Ombudsman) to review their complaint. The Ombudsman will normally only consider complaints made within 12 months of our response. However, they can decide to look at older complaints if there is a good reason to do so.
The Ombudsman investigates matters fairly and impartially and is free to use. There are some matters the Ombudsman cannot or will not investigate. In these cases, they will explain the reason for their decision.
Every year, the Ombudsman sends the council a letter setting out their findings for complaints for the year. This year, the Ombudsman decided on 106 complaints for East Sussex County Council. Of these, 36 (34%) related to ASCH. Last year 37% were about ASCH.
36 ASCH complaints were sent to the Ombudsman. 8 (22%) of these were upheld. This compares very favourably with the Ombudsman national average for upholding ASCH complaints which was 80% last year.
Of the 8 complaints that were upheld by the Ombudsman, 5 (62.5%) had already been upheld by ASCH and appropriately remedied by the council. For 3 (8.3%) complaints, the Ombudsman made additional recommendations to remedy the impact on the people involved and improve services for people who might use the service in the future. This means that only 0.8% of the total number of complaints received by ASCH resulted in additional remedies awarded by the Ombudsman.
| Decision | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Investigations upheld | 6 | 13 | 8 |
| Investigations not upheld | 3 | 2 | 5 |
| Closed at initial enquiries | 8 | 8 | 12 |
| Invalid / complete | 3 | 1 | 7 |
| Referred back | 7 | 8 | 3 |
| Advice given | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Total | 28 | 32 | 36 |
All the investigation decisions are published on the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman website.
7. Service requests and duty enquiries
The Ombudsman recommends that best practice is to have a person-centred and resolution-focused approach when concerns are raised with us. Our aim is to resolve matters through our Duty Team, as service concerns, before they need to go into a complaints process wherever it is appropriate to do so. This year we resolved 570 enquiries through the Duty function. We continue to strengthen our complaints duty function to resolve as many service concerns as possible with a timely response that meets the person’s desired outcomes.
| Adult Social Care and Health services | Total number of Duty enquiries for 2024-2025 |
|---|---|
| Assessment and Care Management - including 110 enquiries for the Neighbourhood Support Teams and 98 for the Blue Badge service | 256 |
| Community Learning Disability and Transition Teams | 18 |
| Hospitals, Finance and Continuing Health Care | 93 |
| Learning Disability Directly Provided Services | 20 |
| Mental Health Services | 88 |
| Older People's Directly Provided Services | 12 |
| Planning, Performance and Engagement | 25 |
| Public Health | 1 |
| Safeguarding Development Team | 0 |
| Strategy, Commissioning and Supply Management | 11 |
| Enquiries where signposting to external organisations was required | 46 |
| Total | 570 |
It is recognised that the ASCH complaints process can take time to look into and respond to concerns. So, the Complaints and Feedback Team try whenever appropriate to work with teams and services directly to resolve concerns before they go into the complaints process. This can be helpful when the concern involves an immediate care management issue, or information provision can address the issue.
It is also recognised that this could not be achieved without the help of colleagues in other teams and services. Over the year they have responded so positively to our requests and have supported and carried out these local resolutions.
8. Learning and actions from complaints
We make sure that every complaint helps us to learn and improve services. We have recorded 261 actions in total in 2024/25. The key themes for learning actions are:
8.1 Information recording
Many of the learning and actions were around improving recording and sharing information with people we support. Some examples include:
- Recording information accurately and sharing this learning across the department
- Ensuring that the correct procedures are followed when people’s cases are being closed, and that all actions are completed before this point or if the worker is leaving the team and embedding this learning across ASCH
- Ensuring more robust recording systems are in place to document that charging information has been shared and embedding this across ASCH teams
- Updating assessments accurately and checking them before sending them out
8.2 Invoicing and financial assessments
Examples of learning and actions for improving our invoicing systems and financial assessments include:
- Processes set up to manage communications where a late invoice will be sent out
- Issues with late submission of invoices were picked up with a provider, to stress the importance of invoices being sent through in a timely way for payment to be made
- The need for vigilance to ensure old invoices, which ASCH are liable for, are reviewed before any invoice is sent to someone
- Reviewing ways to improve timescales for completing financial assessments
8.3 Contact and responsiveness
Examples of actions to improve our responsiveness include:
- Processes put in place to ensure that inboxes and work is monitored when staff are unavailable, and for duty workers to also action and follow up calls and tasks, overseen by a manager.
- Remind staff to ensure all open contracts that require closing are closed appropriately and in a timely way.
8.4 External providers
Some of the examples of learning and actions for external providers include:
- Remind staff to let ASCH know when changes to a package of care are requested
- Improve the system and practice for carers logging in and out of people’s home to track details of time and personnel.
9. Equalities data
This is the first year when our complaints annual report includes demographic data about people who make complaints. We believe it is important to analyse this information to ensure we can understand if people with protected characteristic are disproportionately represented amongst complainants, or if some people are less likely to make complaints.
In 2025 - 2026 we will start to monitor this data on a quarterly basis and undertake follow up work where the data indicates that particular groups of people are under or over-represented in complaints activity. We also note that there are some significant gaps in our data collection for people who access care and support. As part of our Equality and Inclusion Strategy Action Plan for 2025 - 2026, we are working to improve data collection and analysis of who accesses care and support from ASCH.
9.1 Sex
The sex of people making complaints is closely proportionate to the make-up of
people receiving long-term support from ASCH.
| Sex | Number of complaints | % of complaints | % of people receiving long-term support | % of population |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 190 | 57.1% | 57.5% | 52.8% |
| Male | 142 | 42.6% | 42.3% | 47.2% |
| Other | 1 | 0.3% | 0.2% | 0% |
| Total | 333 | 100% | 100% | 100% |
9.2 Age
The proportion of people from working ages making complaints is slightly higher than the proportion accessing long-term support from ASCH. The proportion of people over 65 making complaints is slightly lower than the proportion receiving long-term support from ASCH.
| Age | Number of complaints | % of complaints | % of people receiving long-term support | % of population |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 18 | 2 | 0.6% | 0% | 0% |
| 18-64 | 130 | 39% | 33.4% | 67.46% |
| 65+ | 200 | 60.1% | 66.6% | 32.54% |
| Unknown | 1 | 0.3% | 0% | 0% |
| Total | 333 | 100% | 100% | 100% |
9.3 Disability
The proportion of people with no long-term health condition making complaints is proportionate to those accessing long-term support from ASCH. However, there is a smaller proportion of people with long term-health conditions (82%) making complaints as compared to those receiving long-term support from ASCH (91.9%).
We do not have a record of health conditions for a significant proportion of people making complaints (15%). This could potentially be because we have not yet made a full assessment for these people.
| Long-term health condition | Number of complaints | % of complaints | % of people receiving long-term support | % of population |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No relevant long-term health condition | 9 | 3% | 3.2% | 77.04% |
| People with a long-term health condition recorded | 274 | 82% | 91.9% | 22.96% |
| People with no long-term health condition recorded | 50 | 15% | 4.9% | 0% |
| Total | 333 | 100% | 100% | 100% |
9.4 Race / Ethnicity
There is a lower percentage of White British people making complaints than in our population and accessing long-term support from ASCH. There is a higher percentage of White Other category of people making complaints than those in our population and receiving long-term support.
There is a slightly lower percentage of Black / Black British people making complaints than those receiving long-term support from ASCH. Other ethnicities are fairly representative of those receiving long term support from ASCH. However, there is a greater percentage of people (6.6%) whose ethnicity is not known to us.
| Race / Ethnicity | Number of complaints | % of complaints | % of people receiving long-term support | % of population |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| White - British | 271 | 81.4% | 89.6% | 88.92% |
| White - Other | 27 | 8.1% | 5% | 5.9% |
| Black / Black British | 1 | 0.3% | 1% | 0.79% |
| Asian / Asian British | 5 | 1.5% | 1.1% | 2.05% |
| Mixed | 4 | 1.2% | 1.2% | 1.49% |
| Any other ethnic group | 3 | 0.9% | 0.4% | 0.85% |
| Refused / not known | 22 | 6.6% | 1.7% | 0% |
| Total | 333 | 100% | 100% | 100% |
9.5 Sexual orientation
There are substantial gaps in the recording of this data. Calculations of percentages,
therefore, exclude those where sexual orientation has not been obtained.
Where people responded, the sexual orientation of people making complaints is fairly
proportionate to those receiving long-term support from ASCH.
| Sexual orientation | Number of complaints | % of complaints | % of people receiving long-term support | % of population age 16 and over |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bisexual | 1 | 0.4% | 0.4% | 1.3% |
| Gay / Lesbian | 3 | 1.3% | 1% | 2% |
| Heterosexual | 201 | 89.7% | 90.1% | 96.4% |
| Other | 3 | 1.3% | 1.1% | 0.3% |
| Unsure | 16 | 7.1% | 7.4% | 0% |
| Total | 224 | 99.8% | 100% | 100% |
9.6 Religion
There are substantial gaps in this information (29.7% of people were recorded with religion not stated). Therefore, the rate of complaints from those with no religion stated looks high compared to the rate for the whole population who state they have no religion.
For most other religions, the amount of people making complaints is fairly proportionate to those receiving long-term support from ASCH. However, a lower percentage of people identifying as Christians made complaints in comparison to those receiving long-term support from ASCH.
| Religion | Number of complaints | % of complaints | % of people receiving long-term support | % of population |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buddhist | 1 | 0.3% | 0.3% | 0.5% |
| Christian | 135 | 40.5% | 49.8% | 49.4% |
| Hindu | 2 | 0.6% | 0.1% | 0.3% |
| Jewish | 3 | 0.9% | 0.4% | 0.2% |
| Muslim | 1 | 0.3% | 0.6% | 0.9% |
| Sikh | 0 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Other religion | 10 | 3% | 3% | 0.9% |
| No religion | 82 | 24.6% | 23% | 41.4% |
| Not stated or refused to say | 99 | 29.7% | 22.7% | 6.3% |
| Total | 333 | 100% | 100% | 100% |
9.7 Next steps
We will share this data with our staff teams to raise awareness about demographic details of people who make complaints and where there are any disproportionate gaps. We have also started a project to ensure we improve our recording of data. This means we will have better analysis of the demographic breakdown about people who make complaints.
10. Compliments
Compliments provide valuable information about the quality of our services and show where we are working well. The sincere expressions of gratitude we have recorded prove how much these services are valued by people who access them and their families and friends.
ASCH has continued to receive far more compliments about our services than complaints. This year, we recorded a total of 2,651 compliments. This year the ratio per compliment to complaint is 7:3 compared to 6:1 last year.
| Adult Social Care teams | Total for 2024-2025 |
|---|---|
| Assessment and Care Management | 254 |
| Community Learning Disability and Transition teams | 34 |
| Hospitals, Finance and Continuing Health Care | 31 |
| Learning Disability Directly Provided Services | 296 |
| Mental Health Services | 42 |
| Older People's Directly Provided Services - including 79 compliments for Older People's Services and 1,853 for Joint Community Rehab | 1,932 |
| Planning, Performance and Engagement | 19 |
| Safeguarding Development Team | 0 |
| Strategy, Commissioning and Supply Management | 43 |
| Total | 2,651 |
These compliments show how much the work of ASCH is appreciated by the people who access our care and support. Our staff work tirelessly emulating some of the best practice in the sector with the aim of improving lives of people they support.
11. Conclusion
The Complaints and Feedback team has made significant strides in improving our complaints handling process this year by:
- Strengthened quarterly reporting: To foster a positive culture of learning from complaints, we have improved our reporting format and the reports go to our Operational Management Team and Departmental Management Team meetings quarterly.
- Equalities data collection and analysis: To ensure we understand any disproportionate impact on people from protected characteristics, we have started collating demographic information about people who make complaints.
- Continued comprehensive complaints training for staff: This has included regular virtual training for staff on complaints handling and improving practice.
-
Improved process for monitoring learning and actions: To enable us to monitor implementation of learning and actions, we have given particular focus to how these are recorded and monitored for implementation across the department.
-
Service specific reports: To support and inform the work of various ASCH teams, we have produced team-specific complaints reports. These reports help teams and services to support their handling of complaints and member enquiries and to continuously learn from issues arising.
The assessment of complaints in ASCH offers valuable insights into both the challenges and achievements encountered in service delivery and resolution. The number of complaints received has reduced, and the number of complaints upheld by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has reduced significantly. This shows that the complaints and feedback team and investigating managers are responding well to complaints.
The large proportion of compliments and proportionately smaller number of complaints highlight the good work that goes on in ASCH. When we do receive complaints, we continue to see them as an opportunity to rectify, learn and improve.
Addressing these issues is essential to maintaining, building and rebuilding the trust and wellbeing of people who access our care and support, their families, and carers. We remain committed to learning from complaints to enhance service quality, ensure accountability, and uphold the dignity and rights of all individuals accessing our care and support. Continued monitoring, staff training, and implementation of improvement plans will be key to reducing recurring issues and promoting a culture of continuous improvement.