Service improvements

Essex County 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 - 3 of 3 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 (22 010 021)

    Category: Children's care services Date: 30-Jan-2023

    Summary

    Ms X complained the Council failed to provide her with appropriate support when she agreed to care for her grandchild, F, between 2017 and 2020. The Council upheld Ms X’s complaints after investigating them under the statutory children’s complaints procedure. The Council failed to provide her with relevant support or explain the implications of caring for F under a private arrangement. The Council agreed to pay Ms X £1000 to recognise the distress and uncertainty caused to her as well as the further £1000 it has already offered to cover reasonable expenses. It also agreed to carry out service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council will explain to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman how it has reviewed its private care arrangement processes and what improvements it has put in place, as it agreed to do following the conclusionof the complaints process.The Council will consider developing a leaflet which fully explains to people the implications of caring for children and young people under a private family and friends’ arrangement.The Council will review its relevant policy to ensure staff are aware that where people are considering caring for children or young people under a private arrangement they should explain the implications of such arrangement and provide information about what support services are available. The policy should ensure staff properly evidence and record this on the relevant case notes.

  • Essex County Council (22 006 917)

    Category: Children's care services Date: 10-Mar-2023

    Summary

    Ms X complains that the Council failed to carry out a parent carer’s needs assessment properly. We find that the analysis in the assessment was flawed. But as the problem was remedied in a later assessment which came to the same conclusion, we could not say the fault affected the outcome. The Council has agreed to apologise and demonstrate how it has addressed problems with its complaint handling.

    Service improvements

    The Council will tell the Ombudsman what steps it has taken or will take to address the complaint-handling faults found during the investigation under the statutory children’s social care complaints procedure. These are to ensure:•stage 2 investigations are started within the required timescales;•the service area complained about sends a representative to the stage 3 Review Panel hearing.

  • Essex County Council (21 018 413)

    Category: Children's care services Date: 15-Aug-2022

    Summary

    Mrs Y complained about the Council’s decision to end her foster son, X’s staying put arrangement with her and Mr B. She said the Council failed to take proper account of X’s mental health and need for support. We find the Council was at fault for failing to communicate with Mrs Y and Mr B and failing to include all required information in the arrangement. This led to Mrs Y and Mr B feeling unsupported by the Council. We make several recommendations to address the injustice caused by fault.

    Service improvements

    Council to issue written reminders to relevant staff ensure they are aware of the staying put guidance, specifically in relation to: making sure discussions and decisions arerecorded in meeting minutes, plans and case records and that these arecommunicated to everyone involved.The living together agreement considering and including duration, review, and termination.

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