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 11 - 15 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 (24 011 853)

    Category: Education Date: 26-May-2025

    Summary

    Ms X complained the Council failed to adequately facilitate an independent review panel meeting regarding a permanent exclusion from school. She also complained the Council failed to produce adequate minutes of the meeting. Ms X said the Council’s actions negatively affected the family’s mental health. We found fault by the Council. The Council has agreed to provide an apology, a financial remedy and a copy of the notes taken at the meeting.

    Service improvements

    Remind staff of the need to adhere to the statutory guidance regarding independent review panel hearings; specifically that the minutes of the meeting should name all attendees, and that the clerk should make reasonable efforts to send relevant paperwork to all parties at least five school days prior to the review.

  • Cheshire East Council (24 010 821)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 14-Apr-2025

    Summary

    Mr Y complained about the Council’s delay in telling his late mother, Mrs Z, about her care charges and that it calculated her charges incorrectly. The Council was at fault for significant delay. There was no fault in the way it calculated the care charges. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mr Y and make a payment to acknowledge the frustration and uncertainty he was caused. It has also agreed to review the way its finance and social work teams communicate to prevent similar delays in future.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to review its processes to ensure better communication and follow up between social workers and its finance team where it appears that financial assessments may be necessary and are not showing as completed for council funded care and support.

  • Cheshire East Council (24 008 973)

    Category: Education Date: 24-Apr-2025

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council failed to secure the special educational provision her in daughter, W’s, Education Health and Care (EHC) Plan. The Council was at fault. To remedy their injustice, the Council will apologise to Mrs X and pay her £1400. It will arrange speech and language therapy provision for W. Lastly, the Council will review why it delayed reassessing W’s needs for her EHC Plan and issue a staff reminder.

    Service improvements

    The Council will review why it did not begin seeking information for the child's Education, Health and Care Plan until May 2024, despite agreeing to the reassessment in March 2024. The Council should identify what steps it should take to make sure such delays do not occur again. It should send the Ombudsman details of those steps.The Council will remind staff that when they commission support from a specialist such as a speech and language therapist, they must ensure the package they commission is sufficient to deliver the relevant special educational provision in the child or young person's Education, Health and Care Plan.

  • Cheshire East Council (23 021 149)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 22-Apr-2025

    Summary

    There was fault in the way the Council carried out a safeguarding enquiry into concerns about a care home. This meant there is uncertainty of what would have happened if the enquiry had been carried out differently. The Council has agreed to apologise, pay a symbolic financial remedy and review its practice.

    Service improvements

    •Review how it responds to safeguarding referrals to ensure that referrals are not missed.

  • Cheshire East Council (23 016 429)

    Category: Education Date: 03-Jul-2025

    Summary

    Mrs B complained that the Council failed to take appropriate action to safeguard and promote the welfare of her children. We find there were delays in care planning which likely delayed Mrs B from having unsupervised contact with her children. The Council also failed to respond to correspondence sent on behalf of Mrs B. The Council has agreed to apologise and make a payment to Mrs B. It has also agreed to make service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to amend its working procedures to ensure care plans are properly updated in accordance with the statutory process, and that section 47 outcomes are properly followed up with families.The Council has agreed to consider how it can minimise changes in social workers for looked after children.The Council has agreed to remind relevant staff of the importance of including all contact and correspondence in the case records, and of responding within a reasonable timeframe.

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