Service improvements

Bury Metropolitan Borough 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 Bury Metropolitan Borough Council as a CSV file.

  • Bury Metropolitan Borough Council (23 004 633)

    Category: Education Date: 30-Nov-2023

    Summary

    Mrs X complained about how the Council failed to properly review her daughter’s education health and care plan. There was fault in how the Council failed to properly oversee the annual review process for Y’s plan and how it recorded her complaint. This caused Mrs X avoidable confusion and frustration. The Council agreed to send Mrs X a copy of its decision about its last review, apologise and pay her a financial remedy. It also agreed to issue reminders to its staff and review how it asks schools to complete annual reviews on its behalf.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to remind relevant staff that while it can require schools to carry out annual review meetings for education health and care plans on its behalf, the Council is still responsible for ensuring that annual reviews are carried out.The Council agreed to remind relevant staff that, following an annual review of an education health and care plan, it must send is decision about the review within four weeks, even if it does not propose to make any changes to the plan.The Council agreed to review its requirements and guidance for schools which it asks to hold education health and care plan annual review meetings on its behalf. It should ensure that:schools properly consider and record all the relevant issues mentioned in statutory guidance, including preparing children for adulthood;any reports from meetings prepared by schools have sufficient information for the Council to make its decision about the review; andwhere it does not receive reports at the right time or if reports do not contain the required information, it raises this with the school in a timely manner.The Council agreed to clarify the information on its website about which of its services are and are not covered by the statutory children's complaints procedure, including complaints about education health and care plans.

  • Bury Metropolitan Borough Council (23 002 318)

    Category: Education Date: 16-Nov-2023

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council failed to ensure her child, D, received special educational needs support set out in their Education, Health, and Care plan. The Council failed to arrange replacement Speech and Language Therapy for D in good time, after Mrs X told it this was not in place. The Council agreed to apologise, pay a financial remedy, and issue a reminder to its staff with a copy of our decision.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to share a copy of our decision with relevant staff across its Special Educational Needs (SEN) and Disability service. It will remind staff of the Council’s statutory duty to secure the SEN provision in a child’s Education, Health, and Care plan.

  • Bury Metropolitan Borough Council (22 015 586)

    Category: Education Date: 19-Jun-2023

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council failed to provide suitable alternate education for her child, Y, between March 2022 and May 2022 after Y became too unwell to attend school. The Council was at fault for failing to provide suitable alternative education to Y. The Council agreed to apologise to Mrs X and pay her £650 for the benefit of Y’s education.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind relevant officers involved in education monitoring and support of the Council’s duties under law and statutory guidance to consider providing alternative educational provision when a child of statutory school age is out of school for health reasons or otherwise.

  • Bury Metropolitan Borough Council (22 015 322)

    Category: Benefits and tax Date: 10-Aug-2023

    Summary

    The Council was at fault for failing properly to consider Ms X’s application for financial assistance from its support fund to help her meet the costs of fleeing domestic abuse. The Council was also at fault for sending its response to Ms X’s complaint to several Council officers without explaining the reason to Ms X. The Council has agreed to apologise, make a new decision on Ms X’s application, and act to improve its services.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to provide guidance to relevant staff about the circumstances in which people fleeing domestic abuse can apply for assistance from the support fund.The Council has agreed to remind staff with responsibility for responding to complaints that complainants should be able to complain in private and that where the complaint concerns sensitive or personal details, such as of domestic abuse, distribution of the complaint and response should usually be kept to a minimum.

  • Bury Metropolitan Borough Council (22 014 364)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 06-Jun-2023

    Summary

    Mrs X complained that a care provider commissioned by the Council to support her adult daughter, Miss D, failed to properly investigate injuries to Miss D’s arms, prevented her from entering Miss D’s home pending the outcome of a safeguarding investigation in relation to another resident and disclosed information about the situation to a third party. We found the Council was at fault in that the care provider failed to keep Mrs X informed about Miss D’s injuries, delayed in collecting Miss D’s prescribed medication for the injuries and disclosed confidential information to a third party. In recognition of the injustice caused, the Council has agreed to apologise and make a symbolic payment.

    Service improvements

    The Council will ensure the Care Provider issues a reminder to all staff that family and other representatives must be kept updated and prescriptions should be collected in a timely fashion.

  • Bury Metropolitan Borough Council (22 013 117)

    Category: Education Date: 11-Jul-2023

    Summary

    Miss X complained the Council delayed finalising her child, W’s, Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan. She also complained the Council failed to secure the support in W’s EHC plan and did not put suitable alternative provision in place. The Council was at fault for delay in finalising W’s EHC plan, failing to provide some of the provision in the plan, for delay in arranging alternative provision and for failing to properly monitor the arrangements to ensure they remained suitable. These faults caused Miss X avoidable frustration and distress and impacted on W’s education and development. To remedy their injustice, the Council will apologise to Miss X and pay her £4,700. To prevent the fault occurring again, the Council should also carry out staff training and review its monitoring arrangements for alternative provision and special educational provision.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind staff they can issue final Education, Health and Care plans without parental agreement. This gives the parent the right to appeal to the Special Educational Needs and Disability tribunal to resolve any disagreement over the content of the plan.The Council will remind staff they must consider whether it owes a child the duty to arrange alternative provision when they become aware the child is out of education or not attending full-time.The Council will review the monitoring arrangements it has in place to assure itself that a) children are receiving appropriate alternative provision when they are not in school full-time and b) children receiving alternative provision who have Education, Health and Care plans are receiving the special educational provision set out in their plans. If the Council identifies any actions it needs to take to improve its practice, it will produce an action plan and send it to the Ombudsman.

  • Bury Metropolitan Borough Council (22 008 174)

    Category: Education Date: 25-Apr-2023

    Summary

    The complainant alleged that the Council had delayed in issuing her son’s Education, Health and Care Plan, had failed to provide alternative education when he was out of school on medical grounds and failed to carry out an annual review properly. We find that the Council has been at fault causing the complainant and her son an injustice. We have recommended ways to remedy this, which the Council has accepted. We have therefore completed our investigation and are closing the complaint.

    Service improvements

    the Council will evidence how it ensures schools/educational establishments are aware that an annual review for a pupil is required that termthe Council will evidence how it ensures schools refer pupils out of school to the Councilthe Council will consider whether it needs to review its s19 policy on alternative education, taking into consideration key lessons from the Ombudsman's Focus Report of July 2022

  • Bury Metropolitan Borough Council (22 007 521)

    Category: Transport and highways Date: 02-Apr-2023

    Summary

    The Council was at fault for how it dealt with Mr B’s request for an extension to a dropped kerb at the front of his property. It did not keep proper records so we cannot see how it made its decision. It was also at fault for how it handled Mr B’s complaint. It has agreed to review its decision on the dropped kerb and to ensure its staff are trained in complaint-handling.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to ensure relevant officers are adequately trained on complaint-handling, particularly with regard to the timescales set out in the Council’s procedure.

  • Bury Metropolitan Borough Council (22 000 877)

    Category: Education Date: 24-Apr-2023

    Summary

    The Council was at fault in failing to make most of the provision detailed in the complainant’s child’s Education Health and Care Plan since January 2020. It also failed to properly conduct reviews of the Plan during this period. These faults have caused injustice to the complainant and to her child. We have reconsidered how the Council should remedy the injustice, having taken into account the Council’s and the complainant’s additional comments. The Council has agreed the revised remedy for the injustice caused by its faults. We have therefore completed our investigation and are closing the complaint.

    Service improvements

    the Council will tell us how it will ensure annual reviews are held on time;the Council will tell us whether its improved record system is preventing delay after an annual review;the Council will tell us about its procedures for parents/carers requesting a personal budget and how parents/carers can appeal a negative decision;the Council will ensure that timescales for dealing with statutory Children Act complaints are met.

  • Bury Metropolitan Borough Council (21 006 547)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 26-Jul-2023

    Summary

    Mr X complains about a Section 117 after care package provided by the Council. The Council is at fault as Mr X did not consistently receive his full package of care. There is also no evidence to show the Council sent the wellbeing and recovery plans to Mr X. These faults caused uncertainty to Mr X which the Council has agreed to remedy by apologising and making a payment of £300 to him. There is no evidence to show the Council coerced Mr X into accepting a care package or that it failed to consider a request to increase his care package and request for a personal budget.

    Service improvements

    Review its record keeping to ensure it clearly records a patient’s decision to refuse section 117 after care and whether the Council is satisfied this was an informed decision. This is to ensure the Council has an audit trail of patients’ key decisions about section 117 after care.

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