The number of complaints to Surrey County Council about its adult social care provision has increased by 13 percent over three years.

And the number is expected to rise to an overall increase of 31 percent by the end of this financial year, according to figures released by the council.

In 2014/15 the council received 196 complaints rising to 221 in 2017/18. The projection is expected to reach 256 by the end of 2018/19.

The data was released after a question was put to full council on Tuesday (December 11).

Liberal Democrat councillor Angela Goodwin asked for the data and the type of complaints after a report by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman said the figure across England had trebled since 2010.

In total, since 2014, SCC has received 1,001 complaints with 187 upheld and 13 still in progress.

A response provided by former cabinet member for adults Cllr Mel Few, said that dissatisfaction with the quality of service and issues with finance and funding “consistently appear” as the most frequent types of complaints.

Other complaints included decision making, staff attitude and competency, poor communication and discrimination.

Cllr Goodwin asked what will be done to reduce complaints, but the response from Cllr Few said: “Adult social care will not be taking specific actions to reduce the number of complaints, as these create learning opportunities to improve service quality and are a means by which residents can hold the council to account.”

Figures presented to the council on Tuesday in an answer to Cllr Goodwin about adult care debt, show total debt for the service by October 2018 was £21.88m. 

Under the Care Act 2014, when a local authority arranges care and support to meet a person’s eligible needs, the local authority may ask the person to pay a contribution towards the cost of providing that support subject to an assessment of the person’s financial circumstances.

The adult care debt is what is owed to the council through charges and payments. Unpaid charges more than two years old are written-off.

The debt figure includes an increase in deferred payment applications and the conversion of some existing debt to deferred debt in keeping with the  provisions of the Care Act.

Papers presented to cabinet last month in the budget monthly report said the adult social care service needed to make around £10m savings this year.