The county's largest local authority missed targets in many of the vital services it provides for Kent's 1.8 million residents, new data has revealed.

Kent County Council (KCC) failed to hit the mark in 23 of 38 areas assessed in the second quarter of 2023-24 and published in its Quarterly Performance Report.

The report uses the 'RAG' (red, amber and green) rating system to indicate its overall result for the period assessed.

Issued with a red rating were eight key performance indicators (KPIs) in adult social care (ASC), children and young people and education (CYPE), governance and law, and customer service.

A further 15 received an amber rating, indicating a "floor" level had been achieved but the main target missed.

On ASC, the council failed to achieve the required number of care needs assessments within 28 days.

But the papers state: "There continues to be a focus on ensuring people do receive their care needs assessments in a timely manner...with regular meetings to discuss the actions taken and need to address the demand in delivering these..."

Five other areas were rated amber and one green.

In the CYPE sector, KCC failed to issue education health care plans (ECHPs) within 20 weeks, missed the targets on EHCP reviews waiting over 12 months and the number of ECHP pupils being placed in independent or out of county special schools. It also fell short of the required percentage of case holding posts filled by permanent qualified social workers.

But KCC gets a green ranking for the percentage of all schools with good or outstanding Ofsted inspection judgements.

In governance and law, KCC missed the KPI targets to answer freedom of information (FoI) requests within 20 working days and Data Protection Act requests within a legal time frame.

The KPI requirement for KCC customer services to respond to complaints within an agreed timescale received a red rating.

The report showed an 8% jump in residents complaining to the council, mainly about potholes and the provision of special educational needs (SEN).

Total complaints about customer service in the year to September 2022 was 5,248 to but jumped to 5,649 in the year to September 2023.

The report, issued in the council leader Cllr Roger Gough's name, states: "In quarter two, frequently raised issues included SEN provision, potholes and changes to commercial bus services.

"The increase in integrated children’s services is not due to a particular incident or reason, but have been generally case specific."

The highest number of complaints received were about highways, transportation and waste management which saw a rise from 2,637 (to September 2022) to 2,905 (to September 2023).

Some areas saw a drop, such as education and young people's services (209 to 29) and adult education (71 to 53).

The papers state the number of public visits to the kent.gov website has dropped by 19% year on year but this has been attributed to an updated cookie control mechanism as a result of feedback and recent case law.

Pages relating to the council's household rubbish tips continued to be the most visited by residents, although those numbers have dropped slightly.

All five areas in public health have met and exceeded the targets set, achieving a green rating.

The papers said: "All five KPIs are meeting or exceeding target, and two of these are on an improving trend. However, the number of mandated checks delivered by the health visiting service, and successful completions of drug and alcohol treatment, are only just above target and remain on a declining trend."

Children’s social care and early help KPIs achieved five green ratings out of seven.