Service improvements

Birmingham City 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 39 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 (24 016 073)

    Category: Education Date: 14-Mar-2025

    Summary

    Mr X complained the Council delayed his son, Y’s, Education, Health and Care Plan annual review. He also complained the Council has not ensured Y received education or plan provision. Mr X said this distressed him, impacted him financially and Y has not received education or plan provision. There was fault in the way the Council did not complete the annual review process within statutory timescales and did not ensure Y received education or provision. This distressed Mr X and frustrated his right of appeal to the Tribunal. Y missed education and provision for three school terms. The Council has agreed to apologise, make a financial payment and provide guidance to its staff.

    Service improvements

    •Remind relevant staff of the Council’s duties to adhere to statutory timescales in the annual review process.•Remind relevant staff of the Council’s duties under section 19 of the Education Act 1996 and section 42 of the Children and Families Act 2014.•Remind relevant staff of the importance of effective complaint handling.

  • Birmingham City Council (24 012 349)

    Category: Transport and highways Date: 06-Feb-2025

    Summary

    There was fault by the Council in the way it dealt with Mr X’s application for a dropped kerb. This caused him a financial loss. The Council will make him a payment and apologise to remedy the avoidable inconvenience and distress. It will also make changes to information on its website.

    Service improvements

    The Council will update information on its website to include information about the backlog of approved applications for dropped kerbs and give an approximate timescale for completion of works following payment of the agreed fee.

  • Birmingham City Council (24 009 995)

    Category: Education Date: 28-Mar-2025

    Summary

    Ms X complained the Council failed to issue her child’s education, health and care plan within statutory timescales and it failed to communicate with her effectively. The Council is at fault for delay in finalising the EHC Plan, failing to communicate with Ms X effectively and failing to hold an annual review within 12 months of a previous review. This caused avoidable distress to Ms X and to her child. The Council has agreed to provide a payment of £500 to Ms X and a payment of £500 to her child to acknowledge the avoidable distress caused. The Council has also agreed to make service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to demonstrate to the Ombudsman it has a mechanism in place to ensure annual reviews of Education, Health and Care Plans are not missed.

  • Birmingham City Council (24 007 865)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 24-Feb-2025

    Summary

    Miss X complained the Council failed to organise care to enable her to take part in her education. She says despite the Council agreeing she required care out of the home, it refused to provide this. Miss X says this meant she struggled to study and get to university lectures, she suffered significant distress which impacted on her ability to eat properly, her health and her education. We have found fault in the actions of the Council for delaying in completing an assessment of Miss X and its failure to respond to her. The Council has agreed to issue an apology, pay Miss X a financial payment and complete service improvements.

    Service improvements

    In writing, remind staff of the importance of responding to communications within a reasonable timeframe.

  • Birmingham City Council (24 006 068)

    Category: Children's care services Date: 03-Mar-2025

    Summary

    Ms X complains about the actions of the Council’s children’s services team. The Council has investigated her complaint under the children’s statutory complaint procedure, but Ms X disagrees with the findings and complains about delay in the process. Ms X says she has been caused distress and financial losses. We find fault in the actions of the Council in incorrectly using the Children’s Statutory Complaint procedure to investigate Ms X’s complaints and for delay in the process. The Council has agreed to issue an apology, pay Ms X a financial payment and complete service improvements.

    Service improvements

    In writing, remind staff of the importance of meeting timescales outlined in the children’s statutory complaint procedure.

  • Birmingham City Council (24 005 620)

    Category: Education Date: 14-Feb-2025

    Summary

    Miss X complained the Council failed to ensure her son, Y received an education after he stopped attending school in June 2023. The Council failed to consider at the time whether it owed Y a Section 19 duty to put alternative provision in place. It also delayed completing Y’s Education, Health and Care needs assessment by 14 weeks which delayed Miss X’s right of appeal to the SEND tribunal. The Council agreed to apologise to Miss X and make payments to acknowledge the distress and uncertainty caused. It also agreed to carry out service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind its SEND officers to adhere to statutory timescales when carrying out Education, Health and Care needs assessments to ensure Education, Health and Care Plans are issued by the 20 week deadline.The Council will review its communication process between departments involved in education to ensure that where there is evidence that a child is not attending school that it is communicated to the relevant officers so a decision can be made, at the time whether a duty is owed to provide alternative provision to the child.The Council will provide the Ombudsman with evidence that it has reviewed its communication process with schools to ensure information about children not attending school is passed to the Council at the earliest opportunity.

  • Birmingham City Council (24 005 151)

    Category: Environment and regulation Date: 13-Mar-2025

    Summary

    Mr B complained the Council has repeatedly failed to collect his waste on the scheduled collection days, and the Council’s online platform to report missed collections is not fully accessible for disabled people. The Council was at fault for the continued failure to collect Mr B’s waste on the scheduled days. It was also at fault for the failure to address all Mr B’s concerns in its response to his complaint. Because of the fault, Mr B suffered frustration and uncertainty, and it meant he continued to contact the Council to report the missed collections. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mr B, make a symbolic payment, and issue a staff briefing.

    Service improvements

    The Council will issue a staff briefing to remind relevant staff of the importance of effective complaint responses and addressing all concerns raised by service users within them. This will help to ensure service users get a clear and full response to their complaints, ensuring all problems are addressed and prevent future complaints.

  • Birmingham City Council (24 004 805)

    Category: Housing Date: 28-Jan-2025

    Summary

    The Council wrongly reduced Mr X’s housing priority and failed to promptly close his review when it resolved the issue. The Council has agreed to make a payment to Mr X and to make service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to take steps to ensure all decisions are properly recorded.The Council has agreed to investigate why the housing applicant's priority was reduced and take action to avoid such errors in future.The Council has agreed to review its procedures to ensure that, once a matter under review is resolved, the review is promptly closed.The Council has agreed to provide evidence of the action it is taking to ensure housing applicants do not receive blank attachments when officers are recreating letters.

  • Birmingham City Council (24 004 224)

    Category: Other Categories Date: 07-Nov-2024

    Summary

    Mr X complains about how he was treated at the allotments he used, which he believes was at times unfair and discriminatory. We have concluded our investigation having made a finding of fault. The Council properly investigated Mr X’s allegations and found no evidence of unfair treatment, racism or discrimination. However, we found fault in the way the Council handled Mr X’s complaint. The Council has accepted our recommendations.

    Service improvements

    Remind staff to provide clear rationale for decisions, and to ensure all complaint points have been addressed before issuing a response.

  • Birmingham City Council (24 003 735)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 14-Feb-2025

    Summary

    Miss X complained about the Council’s failure to provide care and support for her brother, Mr Y, over a prolonged period. We found the Council to be at fault. To remedy the personal injustice caused by this fault, we recommend the Council should apologise, make a symbolic payment to both Miss X and Mr Y and backdate the direct payment to the date of the initial assessment in October 2022. The Council should also take action to improve its service.

    Service improvements

    The Counil will remind relevant staff members of the need to complete support plans in a timely fashion and ensure interim arrangements are put in place in the event of a dispute over direct payments.

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