Service improvements

Essex County Council

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022

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 16 cases with service improvements

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

  • Essex County Council (21 002 413)

    Category: Education Date: 10-Feb-2022

    Summary

    Mr X complained about the Council’s failure to promptly reinstate school transport for his disabled child and poor complaint handling. We have found the Council was at fault because it did not carry out a proper assessment of risk and did not respond to his complaint properly. To remedy the injustice caused, the Council has agreed to apologise, make a payment to Mr X to acknowledge the distress caused and review its practices.

    Service improvements

    Remind relevant officers of the need to carry out a risk assessment in respect of travel arrangements that involve health and safety issues.

  • Essex County Council (21 002 061)

    Category: Education Date: 25-Feb-2022

    Summary

    Mrs A complains the Council has not provided the travel payments agreed to support her son to attend school. Mrs A complains the Council has not considered her son’s Special Educational Needs in its decision not to provide the agreed travel. This meant she had to pay out of pocket to bring her son to school when the Council should have partially funded travel. The Ombudsman finds fault with the Council for failing to apply a consistent approach to its discretionary travel policy for Child X. The Ombudsman recommends the Council reconsider Mrs A’s requests without fault and pay Mrs A a financial sum in recognition of the distress and uncertainty. It should also consider service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to consider how it records considerations of applications made for school transport in exceptional circumstances. The Council should consider whether it is appropriate to record its reasoning for selecting a transport choice.The Council has agreed to review how it communicates with those it grants discretionary travel to and consider a service improvement to make it clearer how the Council applies the discretionary travel criteria.

  • Essex County Council (21 001 923)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 22-Nov-2021

    Summary

    Mrs A complains the Council delaying arranging a payment plan for her mother’s care fees. This caused her distress and uncertainty during a difficult period, and meant her mother accumulated a large debt. The Ombudsman finds fault with the Council for delaying arranging a payment plan, and for failing to carry out the actions agreed in the complaint response. This caused Mrs A further distress and delayed resolving the complaint.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to consider a service improvement which would allow staff to deal with requests for payment plans in a timelier manner. This should include the monitoring of requests where applicants are not reachable via phone.

  • Essex County Council (21 001 120)

    Category: Education Date: 11-Nov-2021

    Summary

    Miss X complained the school transport the Council provided for her son is not suitable for his needs. Based on the information I have seen, there was fault in how the Council decided the transport provided for Y was suitable. It agreed to review its decision and give Miss X the opportunity to speak to the decision maker. It also agreed to review its practices for driver training.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to review its practices for school transport driver training to ensure it complies with the statutory guidance.

  • Essex County Council (21 000 364)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 16-Feb-2022

    Summary

    Mr B complained the Council wrongly and repeatedly sent invoices to his mother, Mrs C, for care charges she did not owe, leading her to take her own life. We uphold the complaint, with the Council having acknowledged that it wrongly failed to identify Mrs C’s case as one that should have benefitted from funding it received during the COVID-19 pandemic. While we cannot say the invoices led Mrs C to take her own life we find they caused her unnecessary distress. Mr B was caused distress in turn. The Council accepts these findings and at the end of this statement we set out the action it has agreed to take to remedy his injustice.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to publish a revised version or addendum to its existing policy to its policy on charging clients with social care needs. This will give advice to officers on what action to take when an error by the Council results in a charge for carewhich the recipient will not be expecting and on what action they should take wheresomeone being charged for care may be identified as being particularlyvulnerable or distressed by its invoices.

  • Essex County Council (21 000 281)

    Category: Education Date: 07-Sep-2021

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council wrongly refused to provide free school transport for her daughter, D, from September 2020. The Council accepted it did not direct Mrs X to its policy so she was not aware she could make verbal representations during her appeal. The Council agreed to accept a fresh appeal from Mrs X and give her the opportunity to make verbal representations. The Council also agreed to amend the wording in its policy that requires appeals to always be made in writing.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to change the wording of its Education Transport Policy to make it clear that, while it normally expects school transport appeals to be made in writing, there are circumstances in which it will consider appeals by other means.

  • Essex County Council (21 000 206)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 04-Jan-2022

    Summary

    We find fault with an NHS Trust and Council regarding the discharge planning process for the late Mr Y when he left hospital. The NHS Trust also failed to ensure Mr Y continued to receive treatment for a fungal infection. The Council failed to assess Mr Y’s care needs and its care provider failed to properly assess and meet Mr Y’s needs. The Council failed to properly investigate the safeguarding concern raised when Mr Y was readmitted to hospital and did not notify Mr Y’s daughter, Ms X, of the outcome. This meant Mr Y did not receive the care and support needed after his hospital discharge. The organisations have agreed to apologise to Ms X and make a symbolic payment to acknowledge the distress this caused her. The organisations have also agreed to take action to prevent a recurrence of the faults identified.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to remind its care provider, ECL, of the need to complete a body map at the start of the care package and to ensure it maintains copies of records in line with regulation 17 and that it has procedures in place to retrieve records when service users have died.The Council has agreed to remind officers of the need to ensure they consider which next of kin to consult as part of a safeguarding investigation and to notify them of the outcome and provide guidance or training to relevant council staff of the need to investigate safeguarding enquiries in line with relevant law and guidance.The Council has agreed to review any local discharge planning policies and procedures to ensure they reflect the key practices and principles set out in the ‘Ready to go?’ guidance. This should ensure the following: Patients and care workers are involved in the discharge planning process to enable them to make informed decisions about their care; Staff maintain clear and accurate records, including keeping notes of any discussions with patients and their care workers; Staff robustly assess a patient’s health and social care needs as part of the discharge planning process and develop a clear care plan setting out how these needs will be met in the community. The Council should write to the Ombudsman to explain the outcome of the review and any work it will be undertaking to improve practices and procedures in the area. They should also explain how they will ensure relevant staff are familiar with these practices and procedures.

  • Essex County Council (20 013 640)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 21-Dec-2021

    Summary

    Ms X complained about the way the Council assessed her mother’s needs for homecare support. Ms X says this resulted in distress and a delay in her mother’s discharge. We found fault with the way in which the Council responded when Ms X and the care home raised concerns about the proposed support at home. The Council has agreed to apologise for this.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to share the lessons learned with its adult social care assessors.

  • Essex County Council (20 012 796)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 26-Oct-2021

    Summary

    The Council was at fault when it failed to consider Mr X’s requests on behalf of his sister, Ms S, for disability related expenditure. This caused Ms S an injustice because there is uncertainty over whether those requests should have been granted. The Council has agreed to reconsider these requests and provide Mr X with a decision on each one together with its reasons.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to remind staff of the need to consider the individual circumstances when a request for disability related expenditure is received.The Council agreed to clearly record the reasons for decisions to approve or refuse disability related expenditure.

  • Essex County Council (20 012 711)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 28-Jul-2021

    Summary

    There was fault by the Council. It failed to deal with Miss B’s request to increase direct payments for her daughter’s care for over two years, despite her repeated contact to resolve this. This caused Miss B prolonged and significant distress as she became more fearful that her daughter’s care would be terminated. The Council should apologise to Miss B and her daughter, make a payment to her, and review how it can prevent the fault recurring.

    Service improvements

    Review how it communicates with direct payment recipients particularly when there is an investigation of the care provider to minimise distress and uncertainty.Share this decision with its staff.

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