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 - 2 of 2 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 (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 (22 009 742)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 29-Apr-2024

    Summary

    Miss D complained about the lack of mental health and social care provided to her son, Mr B, when he was discharged from hospital. She said this led to a lack of joint working between the Council, the Trust and the Integrated Care Board (ICB). She said they did not make reasonable adjustments when communicating with Mr B. Miss D also complained about the way the ICB handled her complaint. We found fault in the way they organisations considered and provided support to meet Mr B’s holistic mental health and social care needs. They did not properly consider their duty to make reasonable adjustments when communicating with him. The ICB’s complaint handling was poor, and it failed to provide Miss D with a satisfactory complaint response. The organisations agreed to our recommendations and will apologise to Miss D and Mr B, they will make symbolic payments, assess Mr B’s holistic needs and issue guidance to their staff in areas where they need to improve.

    Service improvements

    The Council will ensure it has guidance in place for its staff to follow regarding the reasonable adjustment set out in the Equality Act 2010. It will provide training or a reminder to its staff as necessary.The Council will provide us with a copy of the agreed Section 117 aftercare policy and procedure document it has finalised with health colleagues.

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