Service improvements

Bristol 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 - 10 of 10 cases with service improvements

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Downloads the current filtered list of service improvement decisions for Bristol City Council as a CSV file.

  • Bristol City Council (23 008 905)

    Category: Benefits and tax Date: 26-Jan-2024

    Summary

    Mr X complains the Council have not dealt properly with his Housing Benefit. The Council is at fault because it did not properly notify Mr X about changes to eligibility in relation to his benefit. Mr X suffered avoidable distress. The Council should apologise, pay Mr X £500, review its decision letters and provide guidance to staff.

    Service improvements

    Review its auto-generated benefit decision notices to ensure that they clearly identify the nature and specific details of the decision they are intended to advise a claimant about; andProvide guidance to staff to consider whether or not claims should be flagged as vulnerable where there is knowledge or evidence that a claimant has required support in the past.

  • Bristol City Council (23 002 949)

    Category: Environment and regulation Date: 15-Oct-2023

    Summary

    Miss X complained the Council repeatedly missed recycling and food waste collections from her property causing avoidable frustration and inconvenience. We have found fault by the Council but consider the agreed action of a symbolic payment, further monitoring and review of its arrangements to manage contractual compliance provides a suitable remedy.

    Service improvements

    The Council will review its waste and recycling contract arrangements and how compliance is monitored to ensure systemic issues are picked up and addressed at an earlier stage.

  • Bristol City Council (23 001 531)

    Category: Education Date: 31-Jan-2024

    Summary

    Miss X complains the Council delayed completing her daughter, Y’s, Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan in line with statutory timescales. The Council accepted it was at fault and it also acknowledged it could have communicated with Miss X better. The Council has agreed to our recommendations to remedy the injustice caused by the fault.

    Service improvements

    The Council will issue a reminder to relevant council officers if the statutory timescales for Education, Health and Care needs assessments and plans.The Council will remind relevant council officers of the importance of keeping parents updated during the Education, Health and Care Plan process, particularly in situations where statutory timescales are not met.

  • Bristol City Council (23 000 854)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 17-Nov-2023

    Summary

    Mrs X, a shared lives carer complained on behalf of herself and the person she cares for, Mr Z. She said the Council failed to pay direct payments in 2022; that Mr Z’s respite cover is inadequate, the Council delayed completing a care and support assessment; the Council’s complaints response was delayed, and her shared lives agreement has ended. We find the Council was at fault for a delay in finalising the care assessment, delay in responding to Mrs Z’s complaint and delay in completing the review. This caused Mrs X and Mr Z significant stress. The Council has agreed to several recommendations to address the injustice caused by fault.

    Service improvements

    Issue written reminders to staff to ensure they are aware of the care and support statutory guidance which states • assessment should be carried out over an appropriate and reasonable timescale taking into account the urgency of needs and a consideration of any fluctuation in those needs. Councils should inform the individual of an indicative timescale overwhich their assessment will be conducted and keep the person informed throughout the assessment process; and • In addition to monitoring direct payments generally to ensure they are being used to meet care and support needs, the Regulations set out that local authorities must also review the making of the direct payment within the first six months of making the first payment.

  • Bristol City Council (22 017 341)

    Category: Education Date: 17-Jul-2023

    Summary

    There was fault by the Council in failing to train new staff in how to assess eligibility for school transport where a child has an EHC plan. This was fault and is likely to have caused injustice by wrongly denying free home to school transport to some families. The Council will carry out a review to identify any affected families and to provide a remedy where an incorrect decision has been made.

    Service improvements

    The Council will provide training and updated guidance to staff about the Dudley test to be applied for considering eligibility for school transport when a child has an Education, Health and Care plan.The Council will check its information for parents references the Dudley test to be applied for considering eligibility for school transport when a child has an Education, Health and Care plan and parents are signposted to accurate information about transport at the time they need to express a preference for a particular school.The Council will review whether other families were potentially affected by the fault in this case and if so, offer a remedy.

  • Bristol City Council (22 014 194)

    Category: Education Date: 14-Aug-2023

    Summary

    Miss Y complains about the Council’s delay in assessing their son, D, and producing his Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP). Miss Y also complains about delays by the Council in setting up D’s personal budget. We find fault by the Council because it did not produce D’s plan in line with statutory timescales and delayed in implementing the personal budget. The Council apologised and made a backdated payment to cover funding for D’s provision during the period of delay. The Council will also undertake the additional actions listed at the end of this statement.

    Service improvements

    The Council will arrange a staff training session or a briefing paper for officers dealing with personal budget requests involving managed accounts to fund packages of EOTAS (Education other than at school). The purpose is to ensure that officers are equipped with the knowledge required to set up personal budgets without unnecessary delay.

  • Bristol City Council (22 013 084)

    Category: Education Date: 19-Jun-2023

    Summary

    Ms X’s son, Mr Z, missed out on several academic terms’ worth of physiotherapy and hydrotherapy that he was entitled to receive, as it was in Section F of his Education, Health and Care Plan (EHC Plan). This injustice was caused by Council fault - mainly service failure - due to the national shortage of physiotherapists and lack of capacity at hydrotherapy services. In recognition of the injustice caused, the Council has agreed to apologise, pay Mr Z £1,050, pay Ms X £300 and carry out service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to provide evidence of the changes it said it made to how it procures hydrotherapy and physiotherapy services, so that service users can access these more promptly when needed.The Council lacked a clear understanding of the procedure at the relevant NHS team with regards to assessing physiotherapy needs. The Council has agreed to demonstrate that it has improved its understanding with the NHS team involved with regards to the procedures around assessments for adults with Education Health Care Plans, in particular during key transfers and transition years.

  • Bristol City Council (22 012 922)

    Category: Housing Date: 10-Sep-2023

    Summary

    We found fault on the complaint sent by Miss C on behalf of Mrs D about the Council’s failure to provide suitable interim accommodation for her and her family during 2022. The Council failed to provide her with timely advice, failed to record her son’s needs in a way that was accessible to all officers working on the case, placed her in unsuitable accommodation for seven months, initially wrongly reduced her banding, and prevented her moving to a risk area. It also failed to properly deal with her complaint. The agreed action remedies the injustice caused.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to review procedures to ensure officers give early advice about the need for applicants to provide supporting evidence for claims about household’s needs.The Council agreed to review procedures to ensure household needs are recorded on file so the information is accessible and visible to any other officer dealing with the case.The Council agreed to review how it assesses an applicant’s needs when providing temporary accommodation.The Council agreed to provide a copy of the banding reduction review outcome when completed.The Council agreed to review why it took five months to move the complainant after deciding the accommodation provided was unsuitable.The Council agreed to review procedures to ensure officers advise homeless applicants who already have secure accommodation about the implications this might have on rent and council tax.The Council agreed to ensure officers have clear guidance about providing consistent advice about whether to surrender a tenancy where a family has fled violence.The Council agreed to consider what action it can take to ensure the cause of delay under stage 2 of the complaints process is not repeated in future.

  • Bristol City Council (22 009 442)

    Category: Benefits and tax Date: 02-Apr-2023

    Summary

    A man complained about the Council’s unreasonable delay in awarding disregards and a band reduction to his council tax account. But we will not investigate this matter because the Council has now applied the disregards and reduction, and we could not achieve a better outcome than that.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to, by training or other means, remind staff of the importance of allocating and dealing with claimants’ applications in a timely manner.•review and ensure the Council’s correspondence to claimants is clear and not contradictory. For example, clearly communicate with claimants that the Council does not produce/issue revised bills and/or statements for council tax accounts that are in credit.

  • Bristol City Council (22 008 058)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 27-Jun-2023

    Summary

    Miss X complained on behalf of her son Mr B. Miss X said the Council funded Care Provider gave inadequate notice and reasons when ending Mr B’s contract. Miss X also said it failed to meet Mr B’s needs and failed to follow correct policies and procedures. We find the Council funded Care Provider was at fault for poor communication, poor record keeping and for failing to follow its values. This caused Miss X distress and uncertainty. We do not find fault with how the Care Provider ended Mr B’s contract or for the care it provided to Mr B. The Council has agreed to our recommendations to remedy the injustice to Miss X.

    Service improvements

    The Council will provide evidence the Care Provider has completed the service improvements identified in its Stage Two response.

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