Service improvements

Brighton & Hove 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 - 9 of 9 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 (23 006 942)

    Category: Education Date: 18-Jan-2024

    Summary

    The Council was at fault for delaying putting in place suitable education for Mr X’s son. The Council was also at fault for not putting in place the special educational provision in Mr X’s son’s Education, Health and Care plan while he could not take up his school placement. This caused injustice as Mr X’s son has missed out on education and special educational provision he should have received. The Council agreed to apologise, make a payment to recognise the loss of education and agree a plan with the child’s school to establish what measures can be put in place while a teaching assistant is recruited.

    Service improvements

    Consider what went wrong in this case and whether there are any changes the Council could make to its procedures to ensure it takes steps sooner to put in place the provision in an Education, Health and Care plan following a decision from the First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability).

  • Brighton & Hove City Council (23 004 544)

    Category: Education Date: 04-Dec-2023

    Summary

    Miss X complained about the outcome of a home to school transport appeal for her son, F. The Council was at fault. It accepted it failed to record the panel’s deliberations and show how the panel arrived at its decision to refuse F school transport. It also failed to provide sufficient detail in its decision letter. This caused Miss X and F distress and uncertainty. The Council agreed to apologise to Miss X and hold a fresh stage 2 appeal panel. If it decides to award F with school transport It will also consider whether to make payments to Miss X and F to recognise the injustice caused by its earlier decision.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind all officers who carry out and sit at school transport appeal panels, and those who send decision letters, of the requirement to consider all of the evidence presented and properly record and evidence how it reached the decision, in line with statutory guidance.

  • Brighton & Hove City Council (23 003 459)

    Category: Education Date: 25-Jan-2024

    Summary

    Mrs B says the Council failed to provide education to her daughter, failed to follow the special educational needs code of practice and delayed considering her complaint. The Council failed to consider putting in place alternative provision for Mrs B’s daughter, failed to follow the special educational needs code of practice following an early annual review and delayed considering Mrs B’s complaint. An apology, payment to Mrs B and reminder to officers is satisfactory remedy.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind officers dealing with reviews of EHCPs of the need to follow the process set out in the code of practice even if there is an outstanding appeal in relation to an earlier EHCP.The Council will remind officers dealing with special educational needs complaints of the need to comply with complaint timescales, particularly when it does not intend to pursue the complaint further due to an appeal. The Council should also remind those officers to check if there are separable parts of the complaint, unrelated to an appeal, which can be dealt with under the Council’s complaints procedure.

  • Brighton & Hove City Council (22 017 779)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 16-Oct-2023

    Summary

    Mr X complained the Council did not properly investigate safeguarding concerns he raised about NHS healthcare he received in 2021 and 2022. There was fault in how the Council considered Mr X’s safeguarding concerns, which caused him avoidable distress. The Council agreed to apologise, properly investigate the concerns, and pay Mr X a financial remedy. It will also review relevant administrative processes and share learning points from our decision with its adult safeguarding staff.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to review its administrative processes for handling adult safeguarding concerns to establish why it failed to consider one of the safeguarding concerns raised in this case. It will then issue internal guidance to relevant staff to prevent reoccurrence of this issue.The Council agreed to share our final decision with relevant adult safeguarding staff to ensure they are aware of the Ombudsman’s findings in this case. It will ensure staff are aware of the Council’s learning points from our decision and the importance of:clear and accurate record-keeping, including recording decision reasons;keeping to timescales, monitoring delays, and keeping the subject of the safeguarding concern and/or their representative(s) informed; communicating outcomes to the subject and/or their representative(s); andproperly checking Council records when responding to complaints about adult safeguarding to ensure Council complaint responses are accurate based on its records and evidence.

  • Brighton & Hove City Council (22 015 508)

    Category: Other Categories Date: 19-Jun-2023

    Summary

    Ms X complained the Council banned her from her local library causing distress. We found fault in the Council’s decision making causing distress and uncertainty. We recommended it apologises to Ms X, pays her £300 for distress, reviews its decisions and acts to prevent recurrence.

    Service improvements

    The Council will review all policies applicable to the library in this case, ensuring its takes into account the Council’s duties under the Equality Act 2010 and ensuring it offers service users a right of appeal or review on any decision to exclude. The Council will then publish any updated library policies on its website.The Council will provide training or guidance to customer contact staff on any new policies and to ensure they are aware to give reasons for any decisions with reference to the evidence relied on and relevant law or policy.

  • Brighton & Hove City Council (22 010 676)

    Category: Transport and highways Date: 10-Apr-2023

    Summary

    Mr B says the Council failed to tell him about court proceedings or give him an opportunity to pay a fine before referring the matter to bailiffs and should not have instructed bailiffs when it knew he was vulnerable. There is no evidence of fault in how the Council managed the case before it referred the matter to bailiffs on the first occasion. There is no evidence the Council properly considered Mr B’s vulnerability before referring the case to bailiffs on the second occasion. The Council’s offer to reinstate the original £30 penalty charge is satisfactory remedy, alongside developing a procedure for dealing with vulnerable debtors.

    Service improvements

    The Council will develop a procedure for dealing with vulnerable debtors, particularly around referring cases to bailiffs.

  • Brighton & Hove City Council (22 009 347)

    Category: Education Date: 04-Jun-2023

    Summary

    We have found the Council at fault for not considering alternative provision when it was made aware that Miss X’s son was not attending school. This left a vulnerable child out of education for a 4 month period.

    Service improvements

    The Council will confirm to us that it has reminded officers of the factors they should consider when deciding whether alternative educational provision needs to be made.

  • Brighton & Hove City Council (22 005 087)

    Category: Housing Date: 16-Jul-2023

    Summary

    Miss C complained the Council failed to provide adequate support about her housing situation which meant she stayed with relatives in unsuitable conditions for longer than necessary. We have found fault by the Council but consider the agreed action of a symbolic payment to recognise Miss C’s uncertainty and distress about the opportunity of being offered suitable accommodation sooner and future service improvements provides a suitable remedy.

    Service improvements

    The Council will provide guidance to staff who manage homelessness applications to highlight the issues identified in our decision and ensure a joined up approach is used when dealing with applications.The Council will review its approach to applicants subject to a section 21 notice to ensure it is in accordance with the Homelessness Code.To remedy potential injustice to others who have not complained the Council will review and amend the allocations policy to ensure that all those entitled to reasonable preference under the Housing Act 1996 receive such preference under the Council’s scheme.Following the implementation of its revised allocation policy, the Council will identify all homeless applicants currently owed a homelessness duty under Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996 who do not have an active application to the housing register and write to those applicants explaining the fault found in this investigation and invite them to apply to the housing register.

  • Brighton & Hove City Council (22 004 864)

    Category: Education Date: 26-Jun-2023

    Summary

    Ms X complained about the Council’s handling of her child’s Education, Health and Care plan. She complains the Council delayed issuing the final plan and did not provide suitable alternative education while her child was out of school from August 2021 to September 2022. Ms X also complained the Council incurred delays in its consideration of her complaint. We found some fault by the Council and the Council has agreed to provide a remedy to address the injustice caused.

    Service improvements

    Remind staff of the requirement to adhere to the statutory timescales regarding the issue of EHC plansRemind staff to keep clear and accurate records, in particular when making amendments to EHC plansRemind staff to adhere to the Council’s complaints policy

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