Service improvements

Brighton & Hove City Council

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023

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 - 8 of 8 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 (22 011 873)

    Category: Environment and regulation Date: 20-Mar-2023

    Summary

    Ms D says the Council has repeatedly failed to collect her refuse. We found evidence of ongoing fault by the Council and have upheld the complaint and completed the investigation because the Council agrees to carry out monitoring and pay redress.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to review its missed bin collection reporting system.

  • Brighton & Hove City Council (22 011 189)

    Category: Environment and regulation Date: 24-Mar-2023

    Summary

    Mr X complained the Council repeatedly missed bin collections causing distress and inconvenience. We found the Council at fault. We recommended it provide a further apology to Mr X, pay him £100 for distress, act to prevent recurrence and consider a remedy for others affected.

    Service improvements

    The Council will take action to ensure it has a process in place that allows it to meet its policy to collect rubbish weekly, even where there are faults with its vehicles.The Council will review any complaints received from other households about the same issue in the last 12 months and consider whether to provide a remedy for any injustice suffered.

  • Brighton & Hove City Council (22 008 539)

    Category: Education Date: 20-Mar-2023

    Summary

    Dr X complained the Council applied unlawful, unpublished criteria when allocating places at oversubscribed schools. She also complained about the actions of the Independent Appeal Panel. We have found fault with the way Dr X’s application for a school place was dealt with. To remedy the injustice caused by this fault, the Council has agreed to apologise, make a payment to Dr X, review its policy and provide a copy of this decision to clerks and Panel members.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to review the use and publication of oversubscription criteria, taking account of the issues raised in this decision statement.The Council will provide all Panel clerks and Panel members with a copy of this decision statement.

  • Brighton & Hove City Council (22 005 271)

    Category: Education Date: 02-Feb-2023

    Summary

    Ms X complains that the independent appeal panel which heard her appeal for a school place for her son did not consider the appeal properly. We find that there was fault in the recording of the panel’s decision-making, rather than in how it reached its decision. The Council has agreed to remind panel chairs and clerks about the need to make a clear record of the panel’s deliberations especially when dealing with multiple appeals.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to remind chairs and clerks of independent admission appeal panels of the importance of keeping clear notes of the panel’s decision-making, especially when dealing with multiple appeals.

  • Brighton & Hove City Council (21 018 270)

    Category: Planning Date: 21-Sep-2022

    Summary

    Mr B says the Council failed to consult him on his neighbour’s planning application, failed to consider the impact it would have on his solar panels and delayed responding to his communications. There is no fault in how the Council dealt with the planning application. The Council delayed responding to an email and complaint. An apology and reminder to officers is satisfactory remedy.

    Service improvements

    The Council will send a reminder to officers in the customer feedback team about how to deal with correspondence from those who have received a stage one complaint response to ensure cases are escalated to stage two, where appropriate.

  • Brighton & Hove City Council (21 011 385)

    Category: Housing Date: 28-Jun-2022

    Summary

    Miss X complains the Council delayed deciding her mother’s homelessness application and placed her family in unsuitable accommodation. Miss X says this caused her and her family significant distress and caused them to live in unsuitable accommodation for longer than necessary. The Ombudsman finds fault with the Council for failing to explore whether Miss X’s mother was entitled to further support, and for delaying its decision about its housing duty. The Ombudsman also finds fault with the Council for failing to consider the suitability of the temporary accommodation it offered. The Council has agreed a financial remedy and service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to review how it decides what support should be provided to thosefleeing domestic violence who wish to stay in their home.The Council has agreed to review how can make service improvements to ensure that homelessnessassessments are completed in a timely manner.The Council has agreed to review how it documents its decision-making process when considering thesuitability of interim and temporary accommodation.

  • Brighton & Hove City Council (21 010 486)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 13-Jun-2022

    Summary

    Mr C was unhappy with the way in which the Council carried out a safeguarding enquiry into a concern he raised about the way in which the care home had dealt with his (late) grandmother’s broken ankle. We found there was fault with the way the safeguarding enquiry was carried out. The Council has agreed to apologise for the distress this caused Mr C and it will also review its safeguarding procedure.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to review its safeguarding procedure, so as to ensure it considers at the start of its enquiry to what extent a safeguarding concerns raised against a care provider, should be investigated by the care provider themselves.

  • Brighton & Hove City Council (21 004 649)

    Category: Education Date: 27-Oct-2022

    Summary

    Mr X complains about the Council’s handling of admission to secondary school for his child, Y. The Council is at fault as it cannot demonstrate it properly applied its admissions criteria to Mr X’s application for his child. The Council delayed in providing the questions and answers for the appeal panel hearing and did not provide sufficient in the appeal panel’s decision letter for Mr X to understand why his appeal was refused. But these faults did not cause significant injustice to Mr X. The Council delayed in responding to Mr X’s Freedom of Information request and complaint which caused avoidable time and trouble to him which the Council has agreed to remedy.

    Service improvements

    Ensure it can provide evidence to show the ranking of pupils who are not offered a place at the school in comparison to the pupils who are offered a place after each round of allocation and re-randomisation of the waiting lists. This is to ensure the allocations process is transparent. The Council should also ensure it provides this information to appeal panels to enable them to make an informed decision on whether the admissions arrangements have been properly applied.

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