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 - 4 of 4 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 (23 001 531)

    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 (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.

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