Service improvements

Cheshire East 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 12 cases with service improvements

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

  • Cheshire East Council (23 010 923)

    Category: Education Date: 28-Feb-2024

    Summary

    Mr X complained that the Council failed to implement provision from his son, Y’s, Education, Health and Care Plan and did not follow its own corporate complaints procedure. We found the Council was at fault for not providing Y with suitable transition from primary school to his secondary school. We also found the Council was at fault in its complaint handling. The Council agreed to apologise, make a payment to Mr X and Y and review its process to improve its practice.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to remind its staff, through appropriate training, of the Council's non-delegable duty to secure the Special Educational Needs provision set out in Section F of a child's Education, Health and Care Plan(EHC Plan).

  • Cheshire East Council (23 008 396)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 08-Feb-2024

    Summary

    Mr X complained about how the Council looked for a new educational placement for his adult daughter, Ms Y. Mr X also complained about how the Council reviewed Ms Y’s Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan, about how it amended the EHC Plan and about its failure to secure the provision in Ms Y’s EHC Plan. The Council was at fault. Mr X also complained about the supported living placement the Council identified for Ms Y. The Council was not at fault in how it decided the placement could meet Ms Y’s needs but was at fault for moving Ms Y to the placement without a sufficiently lengthy transition or an up-to-date care and support plan. The faults caused Mr X and Ms Y significant injustice. To remedy that injustice, the Council should apologise to Mr X, pay him a total of £9500, issue Ms Y’s amended EHC Plan and make improvements to its practice.

    Service improvements

    This complaint was about a significantly disabled young woman with special educational needs who moved from a specialist school placement into supported living. The transition was too short and its impact worsened by poor communication between the Special Educational Needs and Disability department and the Adult Social Care department. The Council will review this complaint and identify what steps it should take to ensure the departments communicate effectively, particularly when a young person with an Education, Health and Care Plan is moving to an adult social care setting.

  • Cheshire East Council (23 003 607)

    Category: Education Date: 08-Feb-2024

    Summary

    Mr X complained about how the Council looked for a new educational placement for his adult daughter, Ms Y. Mr X also complained about how the Council reviewed Ms Y’s Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan, about how it amended the EHC Plan and about its failure to secure the provision in Ms Y’s EHC Plan. The Council was at fault. Mr X also complained about the supported living placement the Council identified for Ms Y. The Council was not at fault in how it decided the placement could meet Ms Y’s needs but was at fault for moving Ms Y to the placement without a sufficiently lengthy transition or an up-to-date care and support plan. The faults caused Mr X and Ms Y significant injustice. To remedy that injustice, the Council should apologise to Mr X, pay him a total of £9500, issue Ms Y’s amended EHC Plan and make improvements to its practice.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind staff they must issue a decision to amend, maintain or cease a child or young person's Education, Health and Care Plan after an annual review meeting.The Council will remind staff they must complete amendments to Education, Health and Care Plans within the timescales set out in law, guidance and by caselaw.

  • Cheshire East Council (23 003 097)

    Category: Education Date: 07-Nov-2023

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council failed to provide suitable alternative provision for her child W. She also complained the Council did not secure W’s special educational provision and delayed in reviewing W’s Education, Health and Care plan. The Council was at fault in how it considered whether it owed W the duty to provide alternative educational provision. It was also at fault for delay in reviewing W’s Education, Health and Care plan and for poor complaint responses. This caused Mrs X frustration and distress and meant W missed out on educational provision. To remedy their injustice, the Council will pay Mrs X £850, apologise and carry out staff training.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind staff in the medical needs tuition team that when considering a referral for a child's tuition, the test they should apply is whether the child would receive a suitable education without the Council making arrangements.The Council should provide the Ombudsman with evidence it has completed the training programme for staff on the new alternative provision school referral process.The Council should remind staff that the recommendations they make for service improvements as part of complaint responses should be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-limited).

  • Cheshire East Council (23 001 848)

    Category: Education Date: 08-Oct-2023

    Summary

    Mrs X complained about failures in the Council’s handling of her request for a change of placement for her son, Y. The Council was at fault for a delay in finalising an annual review carried out in May 2022, failings in its handling of the change of placement request, and failures in sharing information with Mrs X. It will apologise, make a symbolic payment, and use the learning from this case to make improvements to its services.

    Service improvements

    The Council is already reviewing its process for carrying out Education, Health and Care plan reviews. It will provide the Ombudsman with details of that review, including the steps it is taking to ensure annual reviews are completed in line with statutory timescales.The Council will ensure that where officers from its Inclusion Quality team make observations about specific pupils with special educational needs, they will make a record for the child's case file.The Council's Special Educational Needs and Disability training manager will ensure learning from the case is included in the Council's rolling training programme, and particularly that the Council either arranges a review or ensures by some other means that it has full and up-to-date information about a child's needs before considering a change of placement request or consulting with alternative schools.

  • Cheshire East Council (22 017 787)

    Category: Other Categories Date: 06-Feb-2024

    Summary

    Mr X complains the Council did not properly deal with his complaint about a defective Heat Pump in its market. We find the Council delayed providing its complaint response which caused Mr X uncertainty and frustration. The Council should apologise to Mr X, make a symbolic payment of £150 for his time and trouble resolving his complaint and undertake a period of monitoring and review if any further remedial works are necessary.

    Service improvements

    The Council will check the heat pump in the Market and confirm it is working correctly and undertake any necessary remedial works if it is found to be defective.The Council will monitor the temperature in the Market for a period of six weeks to confirm it meets the guidance set out in the Approved Code of Practice on the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations.The Council will review if any immediate action is required to improve the Market’s temperature including the maintenance of the air curtains, installation of thermometers, temporary heating fans and its remote temperature management system.

  • Cheshire East Council (22 014 684)

    Category: Education Date: 23-Jul-2023

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council delayed issuing her child, Child Y’s amended Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan following an annual review in March 2022. The Council was at fault for the delay in issuing Child Y’s EHC plan following the annual review. The Council has already apologised to Mrs X for the delay, which was an appropriate remedy for the injustice caused. Child Y was not caused an injustice by the delay. The Council will provide evidence of how it will reduce similar delays to prevent a reoccurrence of the fault.

    Service improvements

    The Council will review its procedures to improve timeliness for Education Health and Care plan annual reviews and provide the Ombudsman with an action plan of any key actions it has taken or intends to take.

  • Cheshire East Council (22 014 515)

    Category: Transport and highways Date: 13-Aug-2023

    Summary

    We found fault on Mr J’s complaint about the Council failing to investigate reports of water ponding on the road outside his home following road works. It failed to explore this when he complained. The agreed action remedies the injustice caused.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to remind complaint officers of the need to ensure new reports raised during the complaints procedure are referred promptly through to the appropriate department.

  • Cheshire East Council (22 013 706)

    Category: Education Date: 12-Oct-2023

    Summary

    Mrs Y complained the Council failed to deliver all Miss Z’s special educational needs provision in her Education Health and Care Plan. We have found fault by the Council in failing to issue Miss Z’s plan within the statutory timescale and the delay and failure in delivering parts of her special educational needs provision from September 2022 to July 2023. This fault has caused injustice. The Council has agreed to remedy this by apologising to Mrs Y and Miss Z, making payments to recognise the impact of the missed provision on Miss Z, and to reflect Mrs Y’s distress, time and trouble and reporting to us on the position regarding the missing provision. It has also agreed to make a service improvement.

    Service improvements

    Share learning from this decision with staff to ensure they are aware of the importance of issuing an EHC Plan within the required timescale following a SEND Tribunal order, and arranging the provision to start from the date the plan is issued.

  • Cheshire East Council (22 013 136)

    Category: Education Date: 23-May-2023

    Summary

    The Council gave flawed advice that a transition review to name a post-16 placement would be completed earlier than usual due to the complainant’s anxiety. This raised expectations and caused disappointment and distress when the advice was reversed. The Council will apologise, pay £150 to acknowledge the distress caused, and make service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council will share learning from this complaint with staff to ensure that when early reviews are held these are accompanied by clear timescales about next steps including when the Education, Health and Care plan will be updated with any new placement.

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