Service improvements

East Sussex County Council

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2018 and 31 March 2027

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 20 cases with service improvements

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

  • East Sussex County Council (25 010 118)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 20-Apr-2026

    Summary

    Miss X complained the Council left her without Personal Assistant support for around three months after her existing arrangements ended, failed to provide interim support while it reassessed her needs, and did not keep her properly informed. There is fault in the Council’s actions. This caused avoidable distress, uncertainty, loss of support, and reliance on informal care to meet her daily needs. The Council has agreed to apologise, make a symbolic payment and service improvements to remedy the injustice caused.

    Service improvements

    Review its procedures for responding when a person reports their care arrangements have ended, to ensure there is a clear requirement to consider and record whether interim or alternative provision is needed to meet eligible needs pending reassessment.

  • East Sussex County Council (24 023 110)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 21-Oct-2025

    Summary

    The Council failed to properly assess Mr X’s care needs in 2024 leading to a wrongful reduction in his support package. Consequently, Mr X missed out on services to which he was entitled to receive. It also delayed in dealing with complaints about this.

    Service improvements

    The Council should, within three months of the final decision, consider any training needs of officers completing or overseeing needs assessments under the Care Act.

  • East Sussex County Council (24 019 487)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 19-Nov-2025

    Summary

    Mrs X complained about the Council’s handling of her care and support package. We found avoidable delay by the Council which caused Mrs X avoidable frustration. To put matters right, the Council agreed to apologise to Mrs X and partially waive her care costs.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to review its procedures for transferring cases between its hospital discharge and neighbourhood support teams to ensure officers issue and complete all necessary paperwork and tell service users about the transfer.The Council agreed to write to relevant staff to remind them of the importance of timely responses to telephone messages, particularly when transferring cases between teams.

  • East Sussex County Council (24 008 593)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 05-May-2025

    Summary

    Mrs X complains the Council and its care provider, Voyage 1 Limited, failed to ensure her daughter, Ms Y, received all the one-to-one (1:1) support she had been assessed as needing, resulting in her lacking support with social activities and leading to her becoming withdrawn. The Council accepts Ms Y did not receive all her 1:1 support and has offered to pay financial redress for two and a half years. But, Ms Y did not receive all her 1:1 support for three and a half years from March 2021. This left Ms Y without the support she needed with personal care and limited, if not removed, opportunities for social activities. The Council needs to extend its offer of financial redress to cover the period from March 2020.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to identify the action it needs to take to ensure: care providers receive copies of care and support plans; the Council is commissioning the support it has assessed people as needing; and officers accept requests to review people’s needs.

  • East Sussex County Council (23 006 935)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 09-Nov-2023

    Summary

    Mrs C complained about the standard of care provided to her late mother which caused her uncertainty about whether care workers were meeting her mother’s needs. We have found fault as there were instances of care workers not logging calls correctly and not staying for the allocated time. We consider the agreed action of an apology, symbolic payment and a reminder about call times and recording provides a suitable remedy.

    Service improvements

    The Council will ensure a local adult social care provider issues a reminder to all staff about staying the full length of time and to log in and out correctly using the electronic call monitoring system.

  • East Sussex County Council (23 003 041)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 12-Feb-2024

    Summary

    Mrs X complains the Council failed to deal properly with her husband’s care or respect her position as his power of attorney for property and affairs and health and welfare, putting her to significant expenses and causing significant distress which has not been fully addressed by the Council’s flawed safeguarding investigation and the payments it has agreed to make to her. The Council accepts it failed to deal properly with Mr & Mrs X, causing avoidable distress. It has apologised and agreed to make payments to refund Mrs X for additional costs she incurred and to reflect the long delay in sending her its summary report on the investigation into her concerns. The Council needs to make a further symbolic payment to reflect the avoidable distress caused by its failure to deal properly with her and her husband.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to identify the action it is going to take to ensure staff maintain appropriate boundaries when dealing with colleagues who are acting as members of the public.

  • East Sussex County Council (22 005 731)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 12-Jul-2023

    Summary

    The Council is at fault for failing to properly assess and put in preventative measures to support a person in need with fluctuating capacity. To remedy the complaint the Council has agreed to apologise to Mr D and Ms C and make a symbolic payment for the distress caused by the Council’s failures. It will work with Mr D to assess and plan future services, review procedures, remind staff about the importance of considering preventive measures and review processes when a person’s circumstances change.

    Service improvements

    Remind staff and if necessary, provide training about how to assess capacity where there is fluctuating capacity, in particular cases where there is substance misuse;Review policies and procedures so they address assessing and supporting people with fluctuating capacity;Remind staff about taking prompt action in response to safeguarding concerns and to follow action plans and include them as part of the care management process if they arise out of safeguarding;Remind staff and review procedures about the need for personalised housing plans and when individuals should receive them.

  • East Sussex County Council (22 004 206)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 19-Jun-2023

    Summary

    There was fault in the care that was provided to Mr C and there was poor communication relating to the safeguarding enquiries into the care. Both councils have agreed to apologise, to pay a financial remedy and to remind staff of the importance of involving the person at the centre of a safeguarding enquiry in the enquiry.

    Service improvements

    Remind relevant staff of the importance of keeping the adult who is the subject of a safeguarding enquiry at the centre of the enquiry

  • East Sussex County Council (22 002 273)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 19-Apr-2023

    Summary

    Miss X complained about the Council’s failure to carry out a proper safeguarding enquiry about neglect she suffered while living in a supported living unit arranged by the Council. We have found the Council to be at fault. The safeguarding enquiry was inadequate, and the Council failed to properly remedy the significant distress and uncertainty suffered by Miss X and her father, Mr Y. The Council has agreed with our recommendations to remedy this injustice.

    Service improvements

    Provide the Ombudsman with a short report setting out the service improvements that have now taken place as a result of the investigation report completed in February 2022. This should include action taken to increase the supply of supported living placements in the Council’s area.Reflect on the issues raised in this decision statement and identify any additional areas of service improvement. The Council should prepare a short report setting out what the Council intends to do to ensure similar problems do not reoccur. This should include action taken in respect of the concerns raised by the Agency about Home B. This report should be sent to the Ombudsman.

  • East Sussex County Council (22 004 080)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 06-Sep-2022

    Summary

    The Council should have recognised far sooner that it should support Mr X with managing his finances. It should also have responded more quickly to his complaint. The Council has now agreed to waive the debt which accrued most recently and has apologised to Mr X. It will also make a payment to Mr X in recognition that its failure to respond promptly to the complaint caused additional distress to Mr X and his family.

    Service improvements

    Council will provide the Ombudsman with details of how it will expedite complaint responses.

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