Service improvements

Cheshire East Council

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2025 and 31 March 2026

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 15 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 (25 003 123)

    Category: Education Date: 15-Jan-2026

    Summary

    Ms X complained that the Council failed to secure provision set out in her daughter’s Education, Health and Care Plan. The Council is at fault for failing to secure the provision from February 2025 to July 2025. This caused avoidable distress and frustration to Ms X and her daughter. The Council has agreed to apologise, make a symbolic remedy, and make a service improvement.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to review its decision making and identify gaps in oversight in its handling of missing EHC Plan provision, and outline lessons learned and what it will do in the future to ensure provision in a child or young person’s EHC Plan is delivered.

  • Cheshire East Council (25 002 898)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 19-Mar-2026

    Summary

    Ms X complained about the Council’s handling of Mr Y’s care charges and financial assessment. She also complained about the Council’s delay in discharging Mr Y from respite care, and said it failed to explain why he could not go home after the initial six-week reablement period. The Council is at fault for delay in making an occupational therapy referral. It is also at fault for the way it communicated with Ms X about the charges. This caused avoidable uncertainty and distress. The Council has agreed to apologise, make a payment, and make a service improvement.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to send written reminders to relevant staff of the importance of providing clear information about charging and the financial assessment process to service users. In line with the Care Act guidance, this information should include what people are likely to pay towards their care and support needs. The Council should ensure they accurately record, in detail, any discussions and advice given around this.

  • Cheshire East Council (25 002 549)

    Category: Education Date: 13-Nov-2025

    Summary

    Mrs X complained about delays following the Annual Reviews of her son’s (Y) Education Health and Care Plan. We found fault with the Council’s failure to comply with the statutory review timescales. This fault caused injustice to Mrs X. The Council has agreed to apologise, make a symbolic distress payment and carry out some service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council will review its Annual Review process to ensure there are no unnecessary delays in dealing with the review documents sent by the schools.The Council will ensure there is a system in place to prevent parents of the children with EHC Plans being negatively affected by the changes in the SEND staff.

  • Cheshire East Council (25 002 457)

    Category: Children's care services Date: 13-Aug-2025

    Summary

    We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint the Council failed to consider his complaint under the statutory children’s complaints procedure. This is because the Council agreed to resolve the complaint early by providing a proportionate remedy for the injustice caused.

    Service improvements

    Remind relevant staff of the types of complaints that should be considered under the statutory procedure (section 2.2 of the statutory guidance 'Getting the best from complaints' details this)

  • Cheshire East Council (24 021 651)

    Category: Environment and regulation Date: 03-Dec-2025

    Summary

    Mrs X complained about the Council’s failure to resolve flooding of her property. We found fault in the way the Council responded to Mrs X’s flooding reports. The Council’s fault caused injustice to Mrs X. The Council has agreed to apologise and hold a meeting with Mrs X to provide her with clear and accurate information about the Council’s plans for the area affected by the flooding. The Council has also agreed to carry out some service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council will review its record keeping to ensure all communication and decisions are recorded on the central system.The Council will remind its staff responding to the flooding reports of the importance to provide updates to people who have been affected. If the Council does not intend to take any action, it should communicate it clearly, providing its reasons.

  • Cheshire East Council (24 017 816)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 28-Sep-2025

    Summary

    Mr X complained the Council incorrectly assessed his mother’s disability related expenditure when reviewing her financial assessment linked to care costs. We found fault because the Council applied a blanket approach to the disability related costs it would write off which it should not have done. To remedy the injustice caused, the Council has agreed to apologise to Mr X and his mother, review her financial assessment, update its charging policy and guidance and share this with relevant staff.

    Service improvements

    The Council will review and amend its adult social care non-residential charging policy and any associated disability related expenditure (DRE) documentation or guidance issued to officers. It will do this to reflect there should be no DRE limit equivalent to the amount of disability related benefit a person receives when it writes off DRE in its financial assessments. This will help to ensure it does not fetter its discretion by adopting such a limit.

  • Cheshire East Council (24 017 188)

    Category: Children's care services Date: 08-Jul-2025

    Summary

    The Council was not at fault for the way it responded to Mrs X’s reports of a safeguarding risk to her children. It took short-term action to reduce the risk and then carried out an assessment to put long-term support in place for Mrs X’s family. The Council failed to follow its complaint procedure, causing Mrs X uncertainty and frustration. The Council has agreed to apologise and take steps to ensure it follows its complaint procedure in future.

    Service improvements

    The Council failed to follow its complaint procedure. The Council has agreed to review why this happened and take steps to ensure staff follow the procedure in future.

  • Cheshire East Council (24 017 097)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 09-Sep-2025

    Summary

    There was fault in the way the Agency provided care to Mrs D and in its record keeping. The Council has agreed to apologise, provide a financial remedy and carry out a service improvement.

    Service improvements

    Ask the Agency to remind staff of the regulations and policies regarding record keeping in care provision and medication.

  • Cheshire East Council (24 016 532)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 12-Nov-2025

    Summary

    Ms Y complained on behalf of Miss X that the personal budget in her care plan did not meet her care and support needs. We find the Council at fault for not following the statutory guidance when it completed its assessment and care plan for Miss X, and for inadequate complaint handling. This caused significant distress and uncertainty. The Council has agreed to apologise, make a symbolic payment and make service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to remind relevant officers of the Council’s duties including: clearly recording eligible needs, identifying any eligible needs being met by a carer, recording the number of hours of care, reviewing care plans in line with the statutory guidance.

  • Cheshire East Council (24 016 531)

    Category: Children's care services Date: 10-Jul-2025

    Summary

    Miss X complained the Council’s children’s services department did not effectively communicate with her when her child was placed into voluntary care arranged by the Council. We found fault because the Council failed to consider her complaint under the children’s statutory complaints procedure. This caused Miss X avoidable distress and frustration. To remedy the injustice caused, the Council has agreed to consider Miss X’s concerns through the statutory procedure and apologise for failing to do this originally. It has also agreed to make a payment to her and issue guidance to staff.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to remind relevant complaint handling staff of the guidance linked to the children's statutory complaints procedure (The Children Act 1989) 'Getting the Best from Complaints' particularly around 'who may complain' and 'what may be complained about'. This will help to ensure Council staff are fully aware of the statutory procedure and how this differs from its corporate complaints process.The Council has agreed to share the Ombudsman's good practice guidance on the children's statutory complaints procedure (The Children Act 1989) with relevant staff. This will help to ensure staff understand when the statutory procedure should be used to handle children's services complaints, rather than the corporate complaint process.

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