Service improvements

Cornwall Council

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023

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 - 9 of 9 cases with service improvements

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

  • Cornwall Council (22 008 999)

    Category: Education Date: 30-Mar-2023

    Summary

    Miss X complains the Council failed to provide the agreed transport for Child Y, and failed to backdate the transport payments. The Ombudsman finds fault with the Council for poor record keeping, delaying making the agreed payments for transport support, and for failing to provide the agreed transport. The Council has agreed to pay a financial remedy, implement the agreed transport and carry out service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to remind staff the importance of good record keeping and ensure that minutes are taken at every transport panel.The Council has agreed to review how it ensures that any payments for transport are made in a timely manner.The Council will review how it ensures those with disabilities can access the information about alternative forms of transport payments.

  • Cornwall Council (22 007 577)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 11-Jan-2023

    Summary

    The complainant, Mrs X, complained about the quality of home care, the Council’s commissioned care provider, Penhellis Community Care Ltd (Roche), provided to her late husband, Mr X. We find the Council was at fault. This caused distress to Mrs and Mr X. To address the injustice caused by fault, the Council has agreed to apologise, make symbolic payments and remind staff of relevant guidance.

    Service improvements

    The Council should issue written reminders to the care provider to ensure they are aware of: Regulation 17 which says care providers should “maintain securely” records and should have “an accurate, complete and contemporaneous record in respect of each service user, including a record of the care and treatment provided to the service user and of decisions taken in relation to the care and treatment provided”. Regulation 9 “Person Centred Care” says care providers should enable and support relevant people to make or participate in making decisions relating to the service user's care or treatment to the maximum extent possible…”. Regulation 10 says care providers must treat all service users with dignity and respect.

  • Cornwall Council (22 006 811)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 10-Mar-2023

    Summary

    There was delay in arranging Mrs X’s care and support and interpreting service which caused a loss of service and affected not only Mrs X, but also Mr X, her informal carer, by causing distress and a loss of opportunity to have a break. There was also fault in complaint handling and a failure to make reasonable adjustments. There was some fault in the consideration of Mrs X’s disability related expenses, but this did not cause a financial loss. The Council will apologise, make payments to Mr X and take action set out in this statement.

    Service improvements

    The Council needs to ensure there are sufficient staff in the complaints team to respond to customers who require telephone contact as a reasonable adjustment.

  • Cornwall Council (22 000 133)

    Category: Housing Date: 19-Jan-2023

    Summary

    Ms X complains, on behalf of her father, Mr Y, about the Council’s decision not to award Mr Y a local connection regarding his housing register application and homelessness application. Mr Y is a former member of the Armed Forces. We do not find the Council at fault in its first decision not to award Mr Y a local connection for his homelessness application. But, we find the Council failed to arrange suitable accommodation for Mr Y when it accepted a second application from him. We also find the Council failed to award Mr Y an exemption from its housing register local connection criteria (based on his time since retiring from the Armed Forces). Because of this fault, we find the Council failed to have due regard to its commitments under the Armed Forces Covenant. This fault caused Mr Y and Ms X an injustice. To remedy the injustice, the Council has agreed to apologise to Mr Y and Ms X, make them several payments and certain service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to review its housing allocations scheme to ensure there is clear guidance onwhen certain members of the Armed Forces community are exempt from any residency requirements under the Allocation of Housing (Qualification Criteria for Armed Forces) (England) Regulations 2012 . The Council will provide training to relevant staff in both its housing allocations team and homelessness team on handling applications where these Regulations may apply.The Council has agreed to circulate a reminder to staff about when the Council must arrange interim accommodation for a homelessness applicant following a referral to a second council at the relief duty stage.The Council has agreed to circulate a reminder to relevant staff that if a welfare award is increased following additional supporting information, the eligible band date should be the date the completed housing register application was received.The Council has agreed to ask a Senior Officer in both its housing allocations team and homelessness team to review the decision statement and share any identified learning with their team. The Council will report back on the outcome of this.

  • Cornwall Council (21 019 001)

    Category: Housing Date: 11-Oct-2022

    Summary

    We found fault by the Council on Mr J’s complaint about it failing to act on his reports about a neighbour’s behaviour. The Council failed to provide evidence in support of what it said it had done in response to his reports. The agreed action remedies the injustice caused.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to remind officers responding to our enquiries in the future of the need to send proper supporting evidence.

  • Cornwall Council (21 015 463)

    Category: Education Date: 29-Aug-2022

    Summary

    Mrs X complains the Council failed to provide her son, B, with suitable educational provision while he was unable to attend school. We find the Council at fault, which caused B to miss out on certain educational provision and Mrs X was caused stress and distress. To remedy this, the Council has agreed to apologise to B and Mrs X, make them several payments and make a number of service improvements.

    Service improvements

    the Council has also agreed to:• send a reminder to relevant staff of the need to promptly decide whether its section 19 duty has been triggered when a child is not accessing education due to health or medical reasons, including when it becomes clear the child is unable to access a reintegration programme for these reasons. Where the duty is triggered, staff should clearly record how they have assessed whether any educational provision is suitable to the child’s age, ability and aptitude and anyspecial educational needs they may have; and• share this decision with relevant staff.

  • Cornwall Council (21 012 231)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 07-Aug-2022

    Summary

    Mrs X complains the Council has failed to meet her daughter’s assessed need to attend day services since they were allowed to reopen in 2020, which has caused her avoidable distress. The Council delayed in reviewing her daughter’s needs, then failed to review them properly and provided misleading and inaccurate information to her and her MP. This caused unnecessary distress to Mrs X and left her daughter without the support she had been assessed as needing. The Council needs to review the daughter’s needs, apologise, and pay financial redress.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to take action to ensure:a)it reviews people’s needs at least every 12 months; b)provides people with copies of reviews, assessments and care and support plans; andc)officers provide accurate information when responding to complaints.

  • Cornwall Council (21 007 240)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 12-May-2022

    Summary

    Mr D complained the Council failed to properly support his grandson when he transitioned from children’s services to adult care services. He also says the Council failed to give him information about his grandson’s wellbeing. We find the Council delayed assessing Mr D’s grandson. It also should have done more to explore what information it could share with Mr D. The Council has agreed to our recommendations to address the injustice caused by fault.

    Service improvements

    The Council will issue written reminders to relevant staff to ensure they are aware they must start assessments in good time and without unnecessary delay to ensure a smooth transition from children’s services to adult care services.The Council will issue written reminders to relevant staff to ensure they are aware they should explore with the service user whether they wish for their family to be involved in a Care Act 2014 assessment. Staff should properly document any decisions on this.

  • Cornwall Council (20 008 743)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 30-Jun-2022

    Summary

    Mrs X complained about the way the Council dealt with a major adaptation and disabled facilities grant. She said it bullied her into having an extension she did not want, and she could not use the shower or heating for three years. She says this caused her great heartache and pain and spoiled her husband’s plans to die in the room they had built. We find the Council caused Mrs X inconvenience and uncertainty. The Council has agreed to apologise, pay Mrs X £500, and take action to put right the outstanding issues including consulting with an independent heating engineer and an independent occupational therapist. It will also take action to prevent similar problems in future.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to ensure specialist advice is sought for adaptations for people with disabilities such as sight loss in future.The Council has agreed to ensure it communicates with people in an accessible format. When, exceptionally, it is unable to do this, it should speak to the person about how best to do this and make a record of the conversation.

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