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 11 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 (24 009 995)

    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 (24 005 620)

    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 (24 000 304)

    Category: Education Date: 06-Jan-2025

    Summary

    Ms B, on behalf of Z’s parents, complained the Council failed to provide a suitable full-time education for him between February and December 2023. This caused Z, a previously looked after child, feelings of neglect, abandonment and worthlessness. The Council failed to provide a suitable full-time education between September and December 2023 and a suitable remedy is agreed.

    Service improvements

    Remind staff, either by training or briefing note, of the lessons learned from this case including the need to take action within six days following a permanent education and to provide full time alternative education when a child cannot attend school.

  • Birmingham City Council (23 020 612)

    Category: Education Date: 28-Aug-2024

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council failed to properly consider her appeal for home to school transport for her child. There was some fault in the way the Council decided Mrs X’s appeal, but this would not have changed the outcome. There was additional fault as the appeal was delayed, the stage two appeal decision letter lacked detail and Mrs X was not given the opportunity to make verbal representations. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mrs X and take action to prevent recurrence of the faults.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to remind relevant staff of the need to clearly explain the reasons for its decision in its school transport appeal letters.The Council has agreed to ensure it makes parents aware of any action they need to take, and that they are given the opportunity, to make verbal representations at stage two of the school transport appeal process if they want to.

  • Birmingham City Council (23 017 415)

    Category: Education Date: 05-Jun-2024

    Summary

    There was some fault in the way the Council decided an application for school transport for a child below compulsory school age. Irrelevant factors were considered and referred to in decision letters. However, I am not persuaded the fault affected the outcome of the application or caused significant injustice. The Council will make service improvements to prevent a recurrence of the fault.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind staff to provide tailored decision letters for school transport decisions that take into account the age category of the applicant and will ensure assessments consider hidden disabilities or SEN / behavioural difficulties that may affect walking as well as physical disabilities.

  • Birmingham City Council (23 017 219)

    Category: Education Date: 24-Jul-2024

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council refused to provide her son, Y, with school transport. Mrs X explained Y has additional needs, attends a special school and it was unsafe for him to walk to school. She said this caused Y and her distress because Y’s behaviours mean he is at risk of running towards vehicles when walking near a road. There was fault in the way the Council did not properly consider Mrs X’s application and Y’s needs. Mrs X was frustrated by this fault. The Council should apologise, make a financial payment, review the application and provide training to relevant staff.

    Service improvements

    •Remind all officers who carry out transport appeal, and those who send decision letters of the requirement to consider all the evidence presented and properly record and evidence how it reached the decision, in line with statutory guidance.•Arrange staff training for relevant staff on the Council’s duties set out in the statutory guidance. This training should also include awareness of SEN and disability. It should also include the need to take account of disabilities and the impact on the child’s health and safety, as well as mobility, when assessing school transport applications.

  • Birmingham City Council (23 015 247)

    Category: Education Date: 30-Jul-2024

    Summary

    Mrs X complains about the Council’s failure to carry out an annual review within statutory timescales, and the delivery of Section H provision to her daughter, Y. Mrs X also complains about the Council’s decision to stop making personal budget payments directly to her. We intend to conclude our investigation having made a finding of fault. We found the Council failed to carry out an annual review when it should have, and failed to inform Mrs X it did not agree with the Tribunals’ recommendations. We did not find fault for the Council’s decision to stop making personal budget payments direct to Mrs X, and have not seen evidence that the Council’s decision impacted the delivery of provision to Y. The Council has agreed to our recommendations.

    Service improvements

    Complete a review of the process around Tribunal outcomes, with a view to ensuring any decision reached by the Council is communicated by the deadline. The Council will provide the Ombudsman with the outcome of its review.

  • Birmingham City Council (23 010 903)

    Category: Education Date: 22-Apr-2024

    Summary

    Ms X complains the Council has not dealt properly with her son Y’s Special Educational Needs (SEN). The Council did not hold an annual review properly and delayed paying invoices. Ms X had to spend time and trouble chasing payments. The Council should apologise and pay Ms X £100 for time and trouble and review its invoicing systems/processes.

    Service improvements

    Review its invoicing systems and processes to ensure that submitted invoices are recorded on an accurate date and approved in sufficient time to enable them to actually be paid in the required timeframe.

  • Birmingham City Council (23 009 085)

    Category: Education Date: 02-Jul-2024

    Summary

    Mrs X complains the Council failed to provide alternative education after her son, Y, became too ill to attend school. We have concluded our investigation having made a finding of fault. Although we found Y’s absence did not trigger the Council’s section 19 duty to provide alternative education, we found that it failed to review Y’s circumstances when he enrolled at a new school in September 2022. There was a missed opportunity by the Council to review the matter and contribute to any forward planning and further support. The Council has agreed to our recommendations.

    Service improvements

    The Council should review its alternative education policy alongside our published guidance ‘Out of school, out of sight?’ July 2022. It should consider the recommendations we made, specifically that around reviewing and amending plans as necessary, and how it can incorporate these recommendations into its policy.

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