Service improvements

Bristol 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 - 5 of 5 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 (24 012 966)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 21-Mar-2025

    Summary

    Ms C complained the Council failed to provide residential services to her mother, Mrs D, while it carried out adaptations to her bathroom. The Council was at fault for failing to properly consider a change in Mrs D’s needs. This resulted in Mrs D privately paying for nursing care. To remedy the complaint the Council has agreed to apologise to Mrs D and Ms C, repay nursing care fees, and make service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to: by team meetings, staff circulars, or training, remind staff about when to carry out social care reviews and that duties under the Care Act 2014 are ongoing even if other Council departments are involved,remind relevant housing and social care staff to work together when there are adaptations so people’s needs are met when completing adaptation work;review the Council’s process/policy to ensure it includes a specific step to consider how people’s care needs are to be met when there is adaptation work.

  • Bristol City Council (23 015 115)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 21-Nov-2024

    Summary

    Mr X complained the Council decided to stop his care package after a flawed reassessment of his social care needs, and that a subsequent reassessment was delayed. The Council was at fault for delay in completing the first reassessment. This caused Mr X avoidable frustration and uncertainty for which the Council will apologise. It will also issue a staff reminder about needs assessment timescales. The Council was not at fault in the other matters Mr X complained about.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind relevant staff that they must complete adult social care needs assessments in a reasonable and proportionate timescale.

  • Bristol City Council (23 011 801)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 02-May-2024

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council failed to respond to many of her emails; failed to tell her about extra charges for additional carers and failed to consider her late father’s private care provision during its financial assessment. We find the Council was at fault for delay in responding to Mrs X’s emails. This caused her significant distress, and she spent unnecessary time and trouble in contacting the Council. The Council has agreed to make several recommendations to address this injustice caused by fault.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to remind relevant officers of the importance of providing clear communication and responding in a timely manner.

  • Bristol City Council (23 009 039)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 27-May-2024

    Summary

    Ms X complained about the Council’s failure to provide care to meet her assessed needs and related matters. We found the Council to be at fault. It took too long to provide care at the outset, told her to make her own arrangements when the Council could not find a suitable carer and took no action to respond to Ms X’s concerns about lack of parenting support. This led Ms X cancelling her care package and being without care she needed for several months. There was also fault by the care provider when it sent an email to the wrong address on behalf of Ms X. To remedy the injustice to Ms X, the Council has agreed to apologise, make a payment and take action to improve its service.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to reflect on the issues raised in this decision statement and identify any areas of service improvement, particularly in respect of collaborative working between different Council departments. The Council should prepare a short report setting out what the Council intends to do to ensure similar problems do not reoccur. This report should be sent to the Ombudsman.The Council will provide a copy of this decision statement to complaints officers to ensure they are aware of the Council’s ongoing responsibility when commissioning statutory services.

  • Bristol City Council (23 004 795)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 19-May-2024

    Summary

    Ms T complained the Council failed to provide suitable adult social care support to her friend, Mr Z, after his main carer died. The Council delayed making clear best interests’ decisions, failed to decide who should take over deputyship of Mr Z’s financial and property affairs and failed to put in place bereavement support. There was no fault in how the Council assessed Mr Z’s mental capacity and it was not at fault for the placing Mr Z in residential care for three weeks, as this was appropriate action to take in urgent circumstances. The Council’s faults have caused Mr Z uncertainty and in recognition of this, the Council has agreed to apologise, pay Mr Z £600, and carry out service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to speak with Kumari Care to seek assurances that its care staff will record medication administration clearly in its care records in future, and show that managers have communicated this to the organisation’s frontline care workers.The Council has agreed to remind its adult social care staff of the importance of best interests decisions being carried out promptly where recommended following mental capacity assessments and these decisions being properly considered and recorded, in line with Section 4 of the Mental Capacity Act.The Council has agreed to hold a lessons learned meeting to establish why best interests decisions were frequently not carried out in this case, and put learning in place to ensure against this happening in future.The Council has agreed to remind its adult social care staff that care needs assessments should be carried out promptly in response to significant, new circumstances which change a person’s care needs.The Council has agreed to demonstrate what steps it has taken or intends to take, to reduce its adult social care complaint backlog and ensure it is able to investigate these complaints within reasonable timeframes.

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