Service improvements

West Northamptonshire Council

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025

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.

Showing 1 - 10 of 11 cases with service improvements

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Downloads the current filtered list of service improvement decisions for West Northamptonshire Council as a CSV file.

  • West Northamptonshire Council (24 008 783)

    Category: Housing Date: 26-Feb-2025

    Summary

    Mr X complains the Council failed to properly consider his homelessness application when he was fleeing domestic abuse and suffering mental health issues. He also complains the Council has repeated its failures from his previous complaint. We find fault with the Council for its handling of Mr X’s homelessness case. The Council has agreed to pay Mr X a financial remedy in recognition of the distress and missed accommodation. The Council has also agreed to carry out further service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to provide further training for housing and homelessness staff on identifying and carrying out homelessness applications, paying particular attention to when there may be reason to believe an applicant is in priority need.The Council has also agreed to circulate this investigation, Mr X’s previous investigation, and the lessons learnt to housing and homelessness managers and team leaders.

  • West Northamptonshire Council (24 007 298)

    Category: Education Date: 14-Feb-2025

    Summary

    Miss X complained the Council failed to provide full-time education for her child since November 2023. Miss X also complained the Council failed to meet deadlines for her child’s Education, Health and Care Plan and about the poor handling of her complaint. We found fault with the Council failing to provide suitable education for Miss X’s child from 9 May 2024 to 6 October 2024. The Council agreed to pay Miss X £1,225 for this missed education and provide training to its staff about how to assess and address a lack of education for a child not in school. The Council has already apologised to Miss X and paid her £300 for the stress caused through its communication with her and delays in the Education, Health and Care Plan process. We consider this a suitable remedy.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to provide training to staff about identifying when a child is failing to access a suitable education and what steps the Council should take to detail its consideration of this access to education and how it proposes to address this. The Council should refer to the guidance Out of school out of sight? Published in July 2022 to inform this training.

  • West Northamptonshire Council (24 006 290)

    Category: Education Date: 05-Dec-2024

    Summary

    Mrs X complained about the Council’s handling of the Education, Health and Care Plan process for Mrs B’s son following an annual review. The Council accepted it was at fault for causing delays in the process and how it communicated with Mrs B. The Council will make an apology, financial payment and service improvements to remedy the injustice its faults caused.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind staff in its Special Educational Needs and Disability Serviceto ensure,thestatutory timescales for the Education, Health and Care Plan process followingannual reviews are always adhered to.The Council will remind staff in its Special Educational Needs and Disability Service toensure, requests from parents areresponded to in a timely manner. This is to ensure effective communication withthose involved and to avoid unnecessary delays and distress in the process.

  • West Northamptonshire Council (23 018 294)

    Category: Planning Date: 09-Oct-2024

    Summary

    On behalf of Mr X, Ms Y complained the Council acted incorrectly when dealing with reported planning breaches. Ms Y said this caused Mr X distress. We have found the Council at fault for delays in updating Ms Y and Mr X. The Council has agreed to apologise for any injustice caused by the delays and remind its staff to ensure members of the public are kept updated on progress when it is investigating reports of planning breaches.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind its planning enforcement staff of the importance of responding to public enquiries and keeping the public updated on any enforcement investigations in a timely manner.

  • West Northamptonshire Council (23 017 934)

    Category: Education Date: 27-Jun-2024

    Summary

    We uphold complaints about delay in Y’s Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment and Plan, mainly caused by a shortage of Educational Psychologists. We also uphold complaints about poor communication by Children’s Social Care. The Council will write an apology and make payments to reflect the delay, loss of special educational provision and distress caused by poor communication. The Council will provide us with a written report of the progress it has made on reducing the backlog of cases.

    Service improvements

    The Council will provide us with a written report of its progress in reducing the backlog of delayed Education, Health and Care Plans.

  • West Northamptonshire Council (23 017 013)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 10-Sep-2024

    Summary

    Mr C complains the Council provided inaccurate charging information for residential care, and wrongly refused an application for a deferred payment agreement. The Council is at fault for failing to properly advise Mr C of charges and payments it was willing to make. This caused him stress, time, and trouble. To put things right the Council has agreed to apologise to Mr C, make him a symbolic payment, and make service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to:a) review the published guidance and the Council’s policy on Deferred Payment Agreements so that they are consistent;b) remind relevant staff members of the guidance, their discretionary powers and preventative duties;c) through a staff circular or team meeting remind staff about the need to communicate financial decisions promptly, clearly and in writing. This includes any dates or decisions;d) through a staff circular or team meeting remind staff about setting out how they have reached financial decisions including how they have made calculations;e) remind staff about the need to respond to complaints in a timely manner.

  • West Northamptonshire Council (23 016 921)

    Category: Education Date: 13-Aug-2024

    Summary

    Miss B complained that the Council delayed in issuing an amended Education, Health and Care Plan following an emergency review in November 2022, communicated poorly with Miss B and failed to provide C with any alternative education when he stopped attending school at the end of April 2023. We found fault with the Council. It has agreed to apologise to Miss B, pay her £3,300 and improve its procedures for the future.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to review its procedure for amending EHC Plans following reviews (annual and emergency) to ensure any changes are made and a final EHC plan issued within a reasonable period of time (ideally in the region of 8 to 12 weeks from the review).The Council has agreed to offer training and/or guidance to all relevant staff on the requirement to consider alternative educational provision for children out of school for longer than 15 days due to illness, exclusion or otherwise

  • West Northamptonshire Council (23 015 382)

    Category: Education Date: 17-Jul-2024

    Summary

    Mrs B complained the Council delayed in completing an Education, Health and Care assessment and failed to meet the statutory timeframe for issuing an Education, Health and Care Plan for her child, X. Mrs B says this caused distress for X and the family. We have found the Council at fault. The Council has agreed to provide staff training and make a payment to remedy the injustice caused by the faults identified.

    Service improvements

    The Council will provide training to its Special Educational Needs staff to ensure they understand the legal framework, the Council's obligations to complete the Educational, Health and Care needs assessment within the statutory timeframe, and when timeframe exemptions apply.

  • West Northamptonshire Council (23 013 038)

    Category: Education Date: 10-Sep-2024

    Summary

    Ms C complains the Council delayed in completing an Education Health Care (EHC) plan and failed to provide full time education to X. The Council is at fault for delays in the EHC plan process and providing suitable education. This meant X did not receive the education she needed and caused distress to Ms C and her family. To put things right the Council has agreed to make a symbolic payment to X and her family and make service improvements to prevent future reoccurrence.

    Service improvements

    In a previous complaint Reference 23004841 the Council has agreed to take action to improve services when providing alternative education and improving timescales for completing EHC plans. I do not intend to repeat these actions but in addition the Council has agreed to:-a) provide evidence of the steps it is taking to address the delays in getting Educational Psychologist assessments;b) set out what steps/policy changes it is making to address communication with other local authorities where a child is attending an out of area school; andc) review why there was a delay in responding at Stage 2 of this complaint and take action to address any lessons learnt from the review.

  • West Northamptonshire Council (23 004 887)

    Category: Education Date: 17-Jun-2024

    Summary

    Mrs C complained that the Council failed to provide the support for her daughter D, detailed in her Education, Health and Care Plan. We found fault with the Council’s actions. The Council has already made significant payments to Mrs C to recognise the lost provision and some of the private support Mrs C has provided in the interim. The Council has agreed to apologise, to increase the payments, to consider reimbursing any costs Mrs C incurred for Speech and Language Therapy and to provide an update on progress with its service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to provide an update on progress with the service recommendations to improve the Council's processes.:

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