Service improvements

Kent 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 - 7 of 7 cases with service improvements

Export results (CSV)

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

  • Kent County Council (22 008 271)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 13-Jan-2023

    Summary

    Mr C complains Council charges were consistently wrong. This caused Mr C time and trouble. It also increased his pre-existing anxiety. The Council failed to bill Mr C correctly and take action to correct its mistakes expediently. To remedy the complaint the Council has agreed to apologise to Mr C, pay him £200 and created a process for Mr C to follow to ensure bills are correct. It has also agreed to review how it responds to concerns, communicates with Mr C, and reminds the care agency about the importance of recording missed care calls.

    Service improvements

    The Council should, through contract monitoring, ensure the care agency involved is aware of the steps it needs to take when it cannot provide care.

  • Kent County Council (22 006 334)

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

    Summary

    Mrs Y complained the Council failed to take appropriate action when she reported an increase in her aunt, Mrs X’s social care needs and said the Council failed to respond to her. We find fault by the Council. This caused significant stress to Mrs Y and Mrs X. We make several recommendations to address the injustice caused by fault.

    Service improvements

    Remind relevant staff of the Care and Support Statutory guidance which says plans can be reviewed in three ways: a planned review; an unplanned review (usually due to a change in circumstances); and a requested review (when the person or another party asks for a review).

  • Kent County Council (22 005 871)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 14-Nov-2022

    Summary

    Mrs X complains about the Council’s handling of her son’s financial assessment, which she says resulted in a delay in setting up his direct payments and his aunt no longer being willing to take on the role of his personal assistant. The Council accepts it mishandled the financial assessment. It has apologised and agreed to backdate the direct payments. The Council failed to take account of its duties under the Equality Act 2010 by sending him a financial assessment which did not take account of his personal financial circumstances or his need for support with the process. The Council needs to apologise for the avoidable confusion and distress caused. It also needs to take action to ensure it takes proper account of its duties under the Equality Act when doing financial assessments.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to identify the action it is going to take to make sure the financialassessment process takes account of its duties under the Equality Act 2010.

  • Kent County Council (22 002 630)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 16-Jan-2023

    Summary

    Mrs X complains the Council’s care provider, Harbledown Lodge: failed to care for her late mother properly, resulting in a decline in her condition; failed to respond properly to concerns about her care; and gave notice rather than address their concerns, causing unnecessary distress. The care provider did not fail to care for Mrs X’s mother. However, it caused unnecessary distress by giving notice in the way that it did. The Council needs to apologise for the distress caused to Mrs X.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to identify the action it is going to take to ensure officers take moreproactive action to avoid people being moved to another care home when stepscould be taken to avoid this.

  • Kent County Council (21 017 835)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 14-Dec-2022

    Summary

    The Care Provider acting on behalf of the Council failed to protect Mrs D’s property and properly consider the decision not to allow her in communal areas of the care home. It also failed to follow medical advice in the last week of Mrs D’s life and contact family members when Mrs D was administered end of life medication. As well as the actions already taken to address issues about missing items; the Council has agreed to apologise to the complainants, pay £500 to acknowledge the time, trouble, and uncertainty the Care Provider’s actions have caused. It has also agreed through its contract monitoring to ensure the Care Provider reminds staff about risk assessing, following medical instructions, updating family, recording, and considering human rights when making decisions.

    Service improvements

    Provide evidence from the Care Provider of the reviewed policies for inventories when people move into the care home;Through contract monitoring ensure that staff are reminded and if necessary trained on:- human rights and how the way in which care is provided can infringe on these rights such as the right to family life; recording of decisions, and reviewing care plans; the importance of following and recording advice from other professionals such as the GP; the need to contact family members when there are significant changes in a resident’s care needs or circumstances.

  • Kent County Council (21 011 094)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 09-Jun-2022

    Summary

    The Council failed to properly assess the impact of reducing Mr X’s care package. This put his health and wellbeing at risk and led to a loss of care provision for almost a year. It also caused him distress, uncertainty and time and trouble. The Council has agreed to pay Mr X £1,600 to acknowledge the avoidable injustice caused by these faults and has committed to making our recommended service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind staff of the importance of ensuring that an adult's care needs continue to be met when their care plan is under review, particularly if there is a period of dispute regarding the number of care hours it proposes.The Council will remind staff of its duty to clearly set out in its reviews and assessments how a person’s eligible needs under the Care Act will be met, particularly where it proposes to reduce someone’s care hours.The Council will remind staff that its policy for reviewing care plans allows for the provision of cleaners to help people meet their eligible needs under the Care Act.The Council will remind staff of the importance of considering the individual financial circumstances of an adult needing care when recommending the use of a hot meals service in the place of care hours.

  • Kent County Council (20 007 857)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 18-May-2022

    Summary

    Ms C complains the Council has wrongly pursued her for arrears in home support charges and withdrawn her support. The Council is at fault for failing to communicate and assess charges properly and the way in which it reassessed Ms C’s care needs. The Council has agreed to apologise to Ms C, complete a reassessment of her care needs including a support plan, and update invoices. It has also agreed to provide staff reminders, and if necessary training, about the completion of support plans.

    Service improvements

    remind staff about the importance of completing reviews and support plans in line with CSSG.

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