Service improvements

Essex County Council

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2025 and 31 March 2026

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 22 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 (25 007 175)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 29-Mar-2026

    Summary

    Miss B complained the Council did not consider all evidence in reaching its safeguarding outcome. There was fault by the Council. It failed to communicate with Miss B about its consideration of the information she raised with it and explain why this did not change the safeguarding outcome. Miss B suffered distress and frustration. The Council has agreed to apologise to Miss B, make a symbolic payment and issue a staff briefing.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind relevant staff that when further information is presented to the Council after a safeguarding outcome is reached, that it should communicate with the family whether it has changed the outcome and why. This will provide assurance in future cases that all available evidence has been considered and prevent avoidable distress.

  • Essex County Council (25 007 120)

    Category: Education Date: 18-Mar-2026

    Summary

    The Council failed to put in place education and special educational needs provision for Mrs X’s son when tuition broke down, failed to issue a final education, health and care plan following a review and failed to identify a suitable post 16 placement. That meant Mrs X’s son missed out on provision and Mrs X had her right of appeal denied and suffered distress. An apology, payment to Mrs X and a process to manage children out of education is a satisfactory remedy.

    Service improvements

    The Council will put in place a procedure for identifying and tracking the children not receiving education to ensure there are no lengthy delays putting in place provision.

  • Essex County Council (25 006 242)

    Category: Education Date: 13-Mar-2026

    Summary

    There was fault by the Council. There was significant delay sending a final Education, Health and Care Plan after an annual review. A child, Y, received no educational provision after she was removed from the school roll. An apology, symbolic payment and review of procedures remedies the injustice to the family.

    Service improvements

    Produce an action plan to demonstrate how the council will meet statutory timescales for annual reviews. (Or show that this is already in place.)Review its procedures to ensure that there is a process to ensure children with an Education Health and Care Plan who are taken off a school roll are monitored regularly to ensure that alternative provision is provided within legal timescales.

  • Essex County Council (25 005 480)

    Category: Education Date: 05-Mar-2026

    Summary

    Mrs X complained about the Council’s failure to deliver Occupational Therapy included in her son’s (Y) Education Health and Care Plan. She also said the Council had failed to arrange extra education for Y when he was on a part-time timetable and had failed to reassess Y’s needs. We found fault with the Council for not securing delivery of Occupational Therapy for Y and for the delay when reassessing Y’s needs. The lack of Occupational Therapy caused injustice to Y and Mrs X. The Council has agreed to apologise, arrange therapy provision for Y and make a payment to recognise Y’s loss of provision. The Council has also agreed to improve its services.

    Service improvements

    The Council will send us details of the process it follows to ensure children who have Occupational Therapy provision specified in Section F of their Education, Health and Care Plan receive it, even when the Council’s main commissioned therapy provider does not have availability to deliver the services required.

  • Essex County Council (25 005 252)

    Category: Education Date: 31-Mar-2026

    Summary

    Mrs X complained about the way the Council carried out the Education Health and Care Plan process for her daughter (Y). She also complained about the Council’s delays in arranging education and special educational provision for Y and the Council’s actions in response to her Personal budget request. We found fault with the Council for the delay in arranging special educational provision for Y, as well as for the delays and failings with the Annual Review and the Personal budget process. The Council’s fault caused injustice to Y and Mrs X. The Council has agreed to apologise and make payments to Mrs X to recognise her and Y’s injustice. The Council has also agreed to review its record keeping.

    Service improvements

    The Council will review the way it keeps records for children with Educational, Health and Care Plans. The Council should ensure that all key correspondence is properly filed and available.

  • Essex County Council (25 003 128)

    Category: Education Date: 12-Nov-2025

    Summary

    Miss X complained the Council delayed finalising her daughter’s Education, Health and Care plan and failed to ensure suitable education was provided during this period. We have found the Council was at fault. It caused a delay of nine months and continues to cause delay. This likely meant Miss X’s daughter missed out on the education and support she needed. Miss X herself also likely experienced inconvenience and distress. The Council has agreed to take action to address their injustice.

    Service improvements

    The Council will write to this office, setting out how it will ensure in future that, when a parent or school notifies the Council of a pupil’s non-attendance, the relevant department is informed and can coordinate follow-up action to ensure children missing from education are identified and their needs are met.The Council will consider a formal communication process between its SEND and education welfare teams.The Council will review its policies and procedures to ensure it retains sufficient oversight of children missing from education.

  • Essex County Council (24 023 221)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 15-Dec-2025

    Summary

    Miss X complained the Council failed to provide full information regarding Mrs Y’s care home fees or to explain that Mrs Y would be responsible for the cost of 1 to 1 care in addition to the standard care home charges. We found the Council’s failure properly explain how much Mrs Y would be charged for her care, or for what period of time is fault. The Council’s failure to identify a suitable nursing home for Mrs Y is also fault. These faults meant Miss X received an unexpected substantial bill for Mrs Y’s care which caused Mrs Y’s family shock and distress. The Council will apologise and make a symbolic payment to Mrs Y’s family.

    Service improvements

    • Remind relevant staff of the importance of providing as much information as possible about charging for adult social care and the costs of the package of care at the time they arrange the care. And to ensure they make a full record of the advice and information given.

  • Essex County Council (24 022 753)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 15-Dec-2025

    Summary

    Miss X complained on behalf of her late mother, Mrs Y, about the Council’s handling of care charges while Mrs Y was in residential care. Miss X complains the Council failed to provide information about care charges in a timely manner and invoiced Mrs Y for increased care charges without prior discussion. Miss X says the Council’s actions caused significant avoidable distress. We found fault by the Council. The Council has agreed to provide an apology and a financial remedy and make service improvements.

    Service improvements

    Provide evidence of the steps taken by the Council to ensure it keeps families informed about changes in care home chargesProvide evidence of the steps taken by the Council to ensure it checks with care home managers about their expected ratesRemind staff to keep proper and appropriate records regarding the negotiation and agreement of care charges

  • Essex County Council (24 022 393)

    Category: Transport and highways Date: 31-Oct-2025

    Summary

    Mr X complained the Council had not given fair or full consideration to his application to have a dropped kerb outside his property which led to the application being rejected. We found the Council should provide further justification for its decision, remind staff to clearly communicate decision reasons and apologise to Mr X for the distress caused.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind staff of the importance of logging reasoning in the ‘attributes section’ of its system. When making a decision regarding a dropped kerb application, the Council's advisors need to fill out an 'attributes section' of its system, which allows the advisor to provide a more detailed reasoning of its decision. The system then issues this to the applicant. Therefore if the advisor does not complete this section, the applicant is not provided a detailed response into the Council's decision which can lead to confusion on how the Council has reached its decision.

  • Essex County Council (24 021 733)

    Category: Education Date: 05-Oct-2025

    Summary

    Mrs X says the Council failed to complete the Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment requested for her daughter, Y, within the statutory timescales. Mrs X also says the Council has failed to provide education for Y since December 2024. Mrs X says this has caused her and her family distress. We have found fault in the Councils actions for delay in completing the Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment for Y and for failing to provide education. The Council has agreed to write to Mrs X to apologise, pay her a symbolic payment and complete service improvements.

    Service improvements

    In writing, remind staff of the importance of keeping Section 19 decisions under review where further information is required.

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