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 - 7 of 7 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 (23 010 308)

    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 (23 009 190)

    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 (23 009 052)

    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 (23 003 569)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 15-Nov-2023

    Summary

    Ms X complains the Council delayed in authorising an increase in her son’s personal budget and, despite accepting responsibility for that delay, has still not implemented the increase. The Council has failed to take effective action since August 2022 to ensure all the son’s care needs are met. This has caused avoidable distress to Ms X and escalating stress, as more responsibility for meeting his needs has fallen on her. The Council needs to apologise, pay financial redress and take action to ensure all the son’s needs are met.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to take action to ensure officers make complete and accurate records in future.The Council has agreed to consider what action to take to make the process of recruiting a PA more streamlined and less bureaucratic.The Council has agreed to identify the action it is going to take to ensure communication between it and the support agency is improved and that the recruitment of PAs is not delayed in the way it was for Mr Y.

  • Birmingham City Council (22 015 923)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 05-Jan-2024

    Summary

    We found fault by a Council, Trust and ICB concerning the discharge planning for Miss E, a young woman with complex needs. We also found fault with the failure of these organisations to arrange proper Section 117 aftercare for Miss E. The Council, Trust and ICB will apologise for this, provide appropriate care and make a financial payment to recognise the impact on Miss E and her family.

    Service improvements

    The Council, Trust and ICB will formulate a communication plan to ensure Miss E and Ms D are kept informed about Miss E's care.

  • Birmingham City Council (22 015 683)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 14-Sep-2023

    Summary

    Ms X complained about the Council’s failure to properly conduct a mental capacity assessment for her adult child, Mr Y. She also complained about the Council’s delay and failure to support Mr Y with getting an alternative suitable accommodation after he was evicted from his previous placement. Ms X said the Council’s failings led to Mr Y mismanaging his finances and the matter caused her and Mr Y distress, inconvenience and time and trouble. There were some faults by the Council which caused injustice to Mr Y and Ms X. The Council will take action to remedy the injustice caused.

    Service improvements

    By training or other means remind staff of the importance of searching and securing alternative placements for service users in a timely manner.Review the communication strategies between the Council and its service users and people supporting them. This is to ensure the Council communicates information such as mental capacity assessment outcomes to people in a clear and effective manner.Review and make the Council’s processes and practices for securing alternative placements for service users clearer. This is to prevent any ambiguity and to manage service users’ expectations about the Council’s duties in securing the placements.Review the Council’s procedures to ensure it satisfies itself that identified alternative placements are suitable to meet the service users’ needs.Explain to the Ombudsman:How it has improved its practices for securing alternative placements for service users; andHow the Council will monitor its performance against timescales.

  • Birmingham City Council (21 011 595)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 22-Feb-2024

    Summary

    Mr X complained he was prevented from visiting his mother and providing her with home cooked food whilst she resided in a Care Home. He says not being able to visit his mother affected him emotionally. The Care Home is at fault for not following its Visitors Policy and Procedure.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to liaise with the Care Home to ensure it has taken appropriate steps to make staff familiar with the Visitors Policy and Procedure and the actions to take before excluding a visitor.

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