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 - 9 of 9 cases with service improvements

Export results (CSV)

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

  • 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 (21 000 364)

    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 (21 000 206)

    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.

  • Essex County Council (20 006 606)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 06-Oct-2021

    Summary

    Mr X and Mrs Z complained about the end of life care Mrs Y received in Alexandra House nursing home. They said this caused her to be thirsty, and in unnecessary pain. It also caused her distress, and the family depression and lack of sleep. We found the Care Provider was at fault. The Council has agreed to arrange an apology from the Care Provider and pay the family £400. Also, to provide us with evidence that the Care Provider has made the changes.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to provide evidence of checks on the recommendations made by the safeguarding enquiry and quality monitoring exercise.

  • Essex County Council (20 000 445)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 23-Jul-2021

    Summary

    We found fault with the way a Council and NHS Trust handled the discharge planning process for Mr Y after his admission to hospital in April 2019. The Council and Trust agreed to apologise to Mr Y’s daughter and pay a financial sum in recognition of the distress this caused her. They will also review relevant policies and procedures to prevent similar problems occurring in future. We found no fault by another NHS Trust that cared for Mr Y during later hospital admissions in July 2019 and April 2020. Similarly, we found no fault by a GP Practice that provided care to Mr Y in the community.

    Service improvements

    The Council will review all relevant discharge planning policies and procedures to ensure they reflect the key practises and principles set out in the 'Ready to go?' and other relevant guidance. This should ensure that: - Patients and carers 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 carers; and - 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 will write to the Ombudsmen to explain the outcome of its review and any work it will be undertaking to improve practises and procedures in this area. The Council will also explain how it will ensure relevant staff are familiar with these practises and procedures.

  • Essex County Council (19 018 751)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 08-Sep-2021

    Summary

    Miss X complains about the service provided to the late Mr Y by care workers arranged by the Health Service. Also, the way it handled her safeguarding concerns about this. Miss X and Mr Y were distressed, and Mr Y sustained an injury which caused significant pain. The Ombudsman finds fault by the Council. It has agreed to apologise, pay Miss X £350, and take action to prevent similar faults in future.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind officers that all safeguarding concerns and complaints should be dealt with within a suitable timescale using the correct process.The Council will ensure that all safeguard enquiries are quality assured by team managers before they are closed.

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