Service improvements

Brighton & Hove City Council

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022

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 Brighton & Hove City Council as a CSV file.

  • Brighton & Hove City Council (21 004 803)

    Category: Education Date: 09-Feb-2022

    Summary

    Mrs X complains that an appeal panel did not properly consider her reasons for wanting a place at a school for her son. There is no fault in the appeal panel’s decision to hold Mrs X’s appeal by written submission or in its consideration of her appeal. There is fault in the panel’s decision letter as it did not give sufficient information to Mrs X for her to be satisfied the panel had considered her reasons for her appeal and for her to understand the basis of its decision. This did not cause sufficient injustice to Mrs X to warrant a remedy from the Council.

    Service improvements

    The Council will by training or other means, reminds clerks to ensure decision letters meet the requirements of the School Admission Appeals Code and contain sufficient information for appellants to understand the basis of the panel’s decision.The Council will keep a proper record of an appeal panel members’ decisions on the method for holding appeals.

  • Brighton & Hove City Council (21 003 779)

    Category: Housing Date: 22-Feb-2022

    Summary

    The Council was at fault because it did not review the suitability of Mr & Mrs X’s bed and breakfast accommodation and consider moving them to self-contained temporary accommodation. It also took far too long to make a decision on their request for a review of their bedroom needs for their Homemove social housing application. The Council has agreed to provide a suitable remedy for the injustice caused by these faults.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to issue a written reminder to case officers about the need to identify and forward requests for reviews or reconsideration of the suitability of temporary accommodation.

  • Brighton & Hove City Council (21 000 705)

    Category: Environment and regulation Date: 13-Dec-2021

    Summary

    Mr B complained that the Council failed to respond accurately or promptly to his complaint about missed bin collections. We found fault with the Council’s actions which caused injustice to Mr B. The Council has agreed to pay Mr B £300 and improve its complaints procedure of the future.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to introduce a monitoring system for complaints toensure they are dealt with in a reasonable period of time.

  • Brighton & Hove City Council (20 013 549)

    Category: Housing Date: 18-Nov-2021

    Summary

    the Council was at fault because it took far too long to deal with a request for a review of Mr X’s priority band and bedroom need for his Housing Register application. The delay caused frustration and uncertainty. We did not find fault with the decision to confirm his Band B medical priority. The Council has accepted our recommendations for a suitable remedy.

    Service improvements

    the Council will: •Draw up an action plan, with targets, to clear the backlog of review requests and send it to us; •Share the action plan with members of the relevant Council committee and give them regular progress reports.

  • Brighton & Hove City Council (20 010 294)

    Category: Other Categories Date: 19-Oct-2021

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council took too long to complete her licence and charged her for legal fees the amount of which she was not informed about at the outset. The Council has already admitted it was at fault when it delayed and failed to keep her informed of progress. It was also at fault for delaying in providing Mrs X with clear information about the amount of legal fees she needed to pay. The Council has already apologised and offered Mrs X £300 for the delays and failure to keep her updated. It has also agreed to apologise for its failure to provide timely information about the legal costs she would incur.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to remind relevant staff of the need to keep street trading licence applicants informed of the progress and timescales of their application.The Council agreed to ensure that where legal fees are to be incurred for licence applications, applicants are informed in advance there will be a charge and are advised of the amount as soon as possible.

  • Brighton & Hove City Council (20 003 448)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 21-Oct-2021

    Summary

    Mr X complained about the Council’s handling of his late wife’s care. He said it failed to provide suitable overnight care and it wrongly withdrew the care it had arranged. As a result, Mr X said he and his wife experienced distress and uncertainty. We found the Council was at fault for the lack of clarity about what overnight care support Mrs Y would receive. On balance, it was also at fault for withdrawing the overnight care it had arranged. The Council agreed to apologise and make payment to Mr X to acknowledge the distress and uncertainty it caused him. As Mrs Y has sadly passed away, we cannot remedy the injustice she experienced.

    Service improvements

    b) remind its staff to ensure service users care needs are properly considered and the agreed support is recorded in temporary care plans. This includes in circumstances where informal carers are unable to provide care due to requiring hospital stay and during their recovery.

  • Brighton & Hove City Council (19 017 233)

    Category: Education Date: 23-Dec-2021

    Summary

    Ms X complained that the Council failed to ensure all the provision in her son’s Education Health and Care Plan was put in place. We find that while there was some delay in putting in place some of the specific provision Ms X wanted, for the most part this was not the result of fault by the Council. In some cases there is evidence the support was provided. In others the Plan did not specify particular programmes to be used. There are two areas where support was lacking where the Council has agreed a remedy. The Council accepts it should have had more oversight of the provision and has provided details to the Ombudsman on improvements it has made in its procedures.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to provide details to the Ombudsman of the improvements it has made for checking provision is in place following a new or amended Education Health and Care Plan.

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