Service improvements

Birmingham City Council

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024

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 46 cases with service improvements

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

  • Birmingham City Council (23 012 030)

    Category: Housing Date: 07-Mar-2024

    Summary

    The Council was at fault for delay completing a review of its decision Ms C did not qualify to join the housing register. The Council was at fault for failing to consider the information in Ms C’s review request as well as her application. The Council has agreed to apologise, backdate Ms C’s priority, and act to improve its services.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to remind staff responsible for completing reviews of allocations decisions to ensure they consider and address any matters and evidence raised by the applicant in the review request as well as their application.

  • Birmingham City Council (23 011 843)

    Category: Housing Date: 09-Feb-2024

    Summary

    The Council delayed assessing Miss B’s housing application and review request, but there was no fault in the way it decided that she does not qualify to join its housing register. The Council has agreed to apologise to Miss B and to take action to prevent similar failings in future.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to investigate why it did not consider a request for a review which was made in March 2022 until October 2023, and it will provide details of the action it will take to ensure similar failings do not occur in future.

  • Birmingham City Council (23 010 308)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 27-Feb-2024

    Summary

    Mrs X complains the Council failed to provide appropriate care and support when her sister (Miss Y) was discharged from hospital. We found Miss Y’s needs were documented appropriately but the Council failed to ensure the agency providing the care had sufficient time to complete the required tasks. We found this was fault. We recommended an apology and a review of learning to avoid the same situation re-occurring.

    Service improvements

    A manager with responsibility for social workers dealing with hospital discharge should meet with a management counterpart in the Early Intervention and Care Team (EICT). They should discuss Care Provider B’s feedback regarding Miss Y’s discharge and care planning and document lessons learned. They should produce a briefing note for staff dealing with hospital discharge to set these out. They should ensure that the briefing note covers care providers’ capabilities and how to establish that a given care provider can meet a service user’s needs and has sufficient time at care calls to do so.

  • Birmingham City Council (23 010 230)

    Category: Housing Date: 09-Feb-2024

    Summary

    The Council delayed assessing Mrs X’s housing application and then failed to clearly tell her what evidence it needed to complete its assessment, which led to it closing her application. The Council has agreed to apologise, assess Mrs X’s application and backdate her registration date. It has also agreed to make service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to review the wording of its letter template for requesting financial records to ensure it clearly explains the evidence it needs to see.

  • Birmingham City Council (23 009 676)

    Category: Housing Date: 19-Jan-2024

    Summary

    The Council failed to properly consider medical evidence provided by Mr B when it decided he did not qualify to join the housing register. It also delayed assessing his application and reviewing its decision. The Council has agreed to apologise and make a payment to Mr B. It has also agreed to make service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to highlight this case to relevant officers to ensure that when a medical professional gives their view that an applicant’s accommodation is having a detrimental impact on their health, the officer properly considers whether the medical professional is referring to their current address.

  • Birmingham City Council (23 009 190)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 23-Feb-2024

    Summary

    Mr X complained about how the Council dealt with the care and support needs assessment for his father. We found fault with the Council’s actions which caused uncertainty and distress for Mr X and his family. The Council has agreed to apologise, make a payment to Mr X and Mr Y and remind staff about its practice.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind adult social care staff dealing with Mental Capacity Assessments and Care and Support Needs Assessments of the importance of keeping proper records of their decisions.

  • Birmingham City Council (23 009 090)

    Category: Benefits and tax Date: 29-Jan-2024

    Summary

    Ms X complained the Council failed to award her the correct priority on its housing register. The Council was not at fault in deciding her priority. However, it failed to properly consider whether Ms X was homeless. Ms X also complained about the Council’s refusal of a discretionary housing payment. Based on information seen, there was fault in the way it considered this, and it failed to properly consider a request for reasonable adjustments when Ms X challenged its decision. The Council should apologise for the distress and uncertainty caused and take steps to prevent recurrence.

    Service improvements

    The Council failed to offeradvice and support about securing a new tenancy when the person was at risk ofviolence. The Council will share the decision with staff in its allocations anddiscretionary housing payments teams so they can learn from what went wrong inthis case and prevent a recurrence of the failure of the teams to worksufficiently closely.The Council will remind all staff of the importance of considering reasonable adjustments where service users have a disability, and of recording how this has been considered, particularly where a request for adjustments has been made.

  • Birmingham City Council (23 009 052)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 23-Feb-2024

    Summary

    Miss C complained the Council failed to complete an acceptable care assessment within a reasonable time frame, delayed in responding to her correspondence, did not adequately correct faults found in its complaint responses and failed to provide care following a further assessment. We have found fault with the Council’s actions which caused injustice to Miss C. The Council has agreed to remedy the injustice caused.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to update its ‘3 Conversations’ care assessment guidance to ensure the adult social care team are aware of its anticipatory duty to provide reasonable adjustments.The Council has agreed to review its procedure to ensure adult social care service users are routinely asked or prompted to decide whether reasonable adjustments are necessary and correctly record them once reasonable adjustments are agreed.

  • Birmingham City Council (23 008 929)

    Category: Benefits and tax Date: 20-Feb-2024

    Summary

    Mr B complained the Council failed to tell him of a change to his council tax support payments for two years and it wrongly charged him council tax for a further year. This caused Mr B significant distress and frustration and he had to borrow money to cover the arrears. The Ombudsman has found the Council at fault for failing to correctly update Mr B’s council tax account and missing multiple chances to correct this error over the following year. The Ombudsman also finds fault with the Council for sending Mr B inconsistent and confusing information about his council tax account. The Council has updated Mr B's council tax support eligibility and refunded all payments Mr B has made and removed outstanding arrears. The Council has agreed to pay Mr B a financial remedy and issue an apology.

    Service improvements

    The Council will consider the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman's Effective apology guidance and ensure the complaints team are aware of this guidance.

  • Birmingham City Council (23 008 848)

    Category: Environment and regulation Date: 19-Feb-2024

    Summary

    Mr X complained the Council will no longer return the communal bin for his block of flats to the storage area after collection and expects residents to do this. The Council’s failure to properly consider the issues presented by the lack of dropped kerbs and how this should be addressed is fault. This fault has caused Mr X an injustice.

    Service improvements

    Review its Safe Working Procedure to ensure it reflects current safe working practices.

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