Service improvements

Cornwall Council

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025

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 24 cases with service improvements

Export results (CSV)

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

  • Cornwall Council (24 009 660)

    Category: Children's care services Date: 22-Oct-2024

    Summary

    Miss X complained that the Council failed to progress her children services’ complaint to stage two of the statutory Children Act 1989 complaints’ procedure. We have found fault causing injustice. The Council has now agreed to start the stage two investigation. Therefore, we have completed our investigation and are closing the complaint.

    Service improvements

    the Council will provide an update on how it is ensuring the outstanding stage two investigations are progressing.

  • Cornwall Council (24 008 706)

    Category: Environment and regulation Date: 19-Mar-2025

    Summary

    Ms Y complained about the Council’s refusal to provide a wheelie bin for her property. We have found fault, causing injustice, by the Council in failing to: properly consider and assess the evidence Ms Y provided; and apply a consistent policy regarding the safety of collection points. The Council has now provided Ms Y with a wheelie bin, and agreed to remedy the injustice its failures caused by making a payment to Ms Y to reflect her upset, time and trouble and service improvements.

    Service improvements

    the Council has agreed to review its procedures for assessing a property’s eligibility for a wheelie bin or other type of waste collection container and make any changes needed to ensure there are clear and transparent criteria for decisions;the Council has agreed to review its procedures for assessing a property’s eligibility for a wheelie bin or other type of waste collection container and make any changes needed to ensure there is clear guidance in place for officers making decisions, including about how to check if the criteria have been met;the Council has agreed to review its procedures for assessing a property’s eligibility for a wheelie bin or other type of waste collection container and make any changes needed to ensure it keeps proper records to support consistency in decision making.

  • Cornwall Council (24 007 176)

    Category: Education Date: 13-Mar-2025

    Summary

    Mr X complained about the way the Council dealt with his child Z’s education and special educational needs provision. We have found fault by the Council, causing injustice, in failing to: complete the annual review process within the statutory timescales; provide Z with a suitable education; and with its communication and complaint handling failures. The Council has agreed to remedy this injustice by: apologising; making payments to reflect the distress caused to Mr X and the impact of the missed education on Z; and a service improvement.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to review its procedures to ensure it has a proper process in place for considering its duty to provide a child whose EHE has been ended with a suitable education.The Council has agreed to share guidance about its policy and procedure in these cases with relevant officers.

  • Cornwall Council (24 005 023)

    Category: Transport and highways Date: 25-Feb-2025

    Summary

    Mr X complained about the Council’s actions and delays regarding flooding on his property due to blocked drainage on the road. He said communication from the Council has been poor. Mr X said this frustrated and distressed him and damaged his property. There was fault in the way the Council took too long to resolve this issue and communication from the Council was poor. This frustrated Mr X. The Council should apologise, make a financial payment and consider how often the gullies need cleaning.

    Service improvements

    Consider how often the gullies need cleaning.

  • Cornwall Council (24 003 458)

    Category: Education Date: 27-Mar-2025

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council failed to provide appropriate education for her child, Y and delayed issuing him with a final Education Health and Care Plan. She also complained its communication with her was poor. We found fault by the Council on all parts of Mrs X’s complaint. As a result Y missed education he was entitled to, and he and Mrs X were caused distress, frustration and put to avoidable time and trouble. The Council agreed to apologise and make a payment to Mrs X and Y in recognition of the injustice caused to them.

    Service improvements

    The Council will share a copy of the decision with its education welfare and special educational needs staff to identify learning from this complaint.

  • Cornwall Council (24 001 518)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 29-Sep-2024

    Summary

    Mrs X said the Council’s handling of Mr X’s added care costs after he left hospital was unnecessarily time consuming, caused distress and significantly affected her finances. We found there was avoidable delay by the Council and a failure to properly process Mrs X’s complaint about the costs. To put matters right, the Council agreed to apologise to Mrs X and make a symbolic payment of £1,000. The Council also agreed to remind its officers of the need to deal with complaint correspondence in a timely manner.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to send a written reminder to its Adult Social Care officers about the need to handle residents’ complaints in a timely manner by either responding directly or referring them its Feedback Team.

  • Cornwall Council (24 000 808)

    Category: Education Date: 19-Mar-2025

    Summary

    The Council failed to consider whether it owed Mr X’s child, Z, a duty to provide alternative education when they could not attend school due to ill health. It also failed to ensure Z received all the support in their Education, Health and Care Plan and failed to do what it said it would following key meetings. The Council’s faults caused Z to miss out on a term of provision and caused Mr X significant uncertainty, frustration and time and trouble. In recognition of the injustice caused, the Council has agreed to apologise, arrange additional provision to make up for some of the sessions Z missed, pay Mr X £2,700 and carry out service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to instruct all Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) staff and staff dealing with alternative provision to ensure that case records and meeting notes - including annual review meetings - must record which organisation is responsible for carrying out any agreed actions, with respect to children and young people’s referrals for education and support.The Council has agreed to inform its complaint handling staff that while proactively contacting complainants to resolve complaints is welcome, this is not a replacement for providing them with a complaint response.The Council has agreed to look into what caused the delays in the Council making decisions and finalising Education Health and Care Plans in this case and outline what action it has taken to prevent recurrence of these delays in future.

  • Cornwall Council (24 000 115)

    Category: Housing Date: 22-Sep-2024

    Summary

    We found fault on Mrs K’s complaint about the Council failing to allow her to bid for two-bedroom properties which left her in a property which does not meet her needs. It failed to show it properly considered her evidence when reaching its decision. The agreed action remedies the injustice caused.

    Service improvements

    The Council will review all the evidence sent and make a fresh reasoned decision on the request for a two-bedroom property showing it took account of all relevant evidence provided in support.The Council agreed to remind all relevant staff involved with the making of decisions about bedroom entitlement of the need to: i) give reasons in support of itsdecisions; and ii) show they considered all relevant evidence against the requirements of its policy.

  • Cornwall Council (23 021 362)

    Category: Education Date: 10-Jan-2025

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council failed to provide the provision in her daughter, Miss Y’s, Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan since May 2023 and delayed completing an annual review of the EHC Plan in June 2024. Mrs X also complained the Council delayed in responding to her complaint about the matter. The Council was at fault. The Council will apologise and make payments to Mrs X for the frustration she was caused and Miss Y for the provision she missed.

    Service improvements

    The Council will review its policy for handling complaints on special educational need matters and ensure the policy requires complaint investigations to consider appropriate remedies for injustice caused by any fault it upholds.Following a review of the relevant policy the Council will remind relevant staff to consider appropriate remedies in its complaint responses for any injustices it identifies as a result of a Council fault.

  • Cornwall Council (23 020 604)

    Category: Environment and regulation Date: 22-Jul-2024

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council failed to properly assess her property and provide her with a wheelie bin in accordance with its eligibility criteria. The Council is at fault because it failed to fully assess Mrs X’s property for the storage and collection of a wheelie bin in line with its policy. The Council has agreed to carry out a new assessment of Mrs X’s property which remedies any injustice caused.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind relevant officers to carry out wheelie bin assessment reviews within timescales outlined in its policy.

LGO logogram

Review your privacy settings

Required cookies

These cookies enable the website to function properly. You can only disable these by changing your browser preferences, but this will affect how the website performs.

View required cookies

Analytical cookies

Google Analytics cookies help us improve the performance of the website by understanding how visitors use the site.
We recommend you set these 'ON'.

View analytical cookies

In using Google Analytics, we do not collect or store personal information that could identify you (for example your name or address). We do not allow Google to use or share our analytics data. Google has developed a tool to help you opt out of Google Analytics cookies.

Privacy settings