Service improvements

Leeds City Council

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025

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 11 - 20 of 25 cases with service improvements

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

  • Leeds City Council (23 019 778)

    Category: Education Date: 13-Oct-2024

    Summary

    Miss B complains about the Council’s decision not to assess her son for an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHC Plan), and the Council’s subsequent delays in carrying out an EHC needs assessment and issuing an EHC Plan after she later applied again. She also complains the Council failed to consider relevant information during the assessment process and when issuing the EHC Plan. There was fault by the Council in the way it did not meet statutory timescales during the EHC Plan process. Because of this, Miss B suffered distress and frustration, and the Council’s failure to meet statutory timescales delayed her appeal rights to the Tribunal. Miss B’s son missed out on provision and support. The Council will apologise to Miss B and her son, make a symbolic payment, and provide staff training.

    Service improvements

    The Council will provide training to all relevant staff to remind staff of the importance offollowing statutory timescales when completing EHC needs assessments andissuing final EHC Plans, responding to complaints in a timely manner, and goodcommunication and record-keeping. This will help to ensure statutory timescales are met, and people do not experience delays or loss of provision and support.

  • Leeds City Council (23 018 816)

    Category: Environment and regulation Date: 30-Sep-2024

    Summary

    Mr and Mrs X complained about the Council’s response to their reports about the condition of a neighbouring property. They said the neighbouring property did not have adequate guttering which caused issues of penetrating damp to their property and a collection of waste led to the presence of pests. We have found fault by the Council but consider the agreed action of an apology, symbolic payment and reminder to staff about record keeping provides a suitable remedy.

    Service improvements

    The Council will issue a reminder to relevant staff about the need to ensure a proper record of actions and decisions is maintained when dealing with enforcement investigations.

  • Leeds City Council (23 018 292)

    Category: Education Date: 13-Aug-2024

    Summary

    Ms C complains the Council delayed in assessing X for an Education Health Care (EHC) plan. The Council is at fault for failing to assess X for an EHC plan within the statutory timeframes and update Ms C. To put things right the Council has agreed to make Ms C a symbolic payment and remind staff to keep parents updated when it delays.

    Service improvements

    The Council will:-• remind staff of the importance of providing updates;• remind staff to complete agreed actions within complaint responses;

  • Leeds City Council (23 017 763)

    Category: Education Date: 15-Jul-2024

    Summary

    There was fault in the way the Council handled a transfer of an EHC plan and in its failure to secure alternative education when a child was unable to attend school due to ill-health. The Council will apologise, make symbolic payments, and carry out service improvements. The complaint is upheld.

    Service improvements

    The Council will ensure it provides the correct notifications when a child with an EHC Plan moves into its area.The Council will ensure s.19 education is secured where appropriate and intervene when a school fails to make suitable arrangements.The Council will ensure it can process funding in a timely way so Section F provision in an EHC Plan is secured.

  • Leeds City Council (23 017 762)

    Category: Education Date: 16-Jul-2024

    Summary

    Ms C complained the Council failed to complete an Education, Health and Care needs assessment and issue a final Plan within the statutory timeframes and it failed to provide her child, X, with access to suitable, full time education. We have found the Council at fault which has caused an injustice. The Council has agreed to make a financial payment to Ms C and issue reminders to its staff to remedy the faults identified.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind staff dealing with special educational needs cases that where they are aware a child is not attending school, they should consider each individual case and its Section 19 duty in accordance with the relevant law and guidance.The Council will remind staff dealing with complaints that they should provide responses within the policy timeframes and if there is any delay in a full response being provided, they should keep complainants updated and informed of a revised timescale.

  • Leeds City Council (23 017 578)

    Category: Housing Date: 11-Aug-2024

    Summary

    Mr C complained about the Council’s handling of his housing application. The Council failed to consider him for properties and provided incorrect information about another property. The Council’s complaint handling was also inadequate. These faults caused Mr C distress, frustration and uncertainty. The Council has already apologised and provided a financial remedy, however the Council will make a further payment to recognise the personal injustice to Mr C.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind housing staff of the Council’s policy when a person is suitable for more than one property.

  • Leeds City Council (23 017 493)

    Category: Education Date: 20-Jun-2024

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council delayed completing her child, Child Y’s Education, Health and Care (EHC) needs assessment and deciding to issue Child Y with an EHC Plan. The Council was at fault. Its failure to meet its statutory timescales was mainly due to a delay in obtaining Educational Psychologist advice. The Council will apologise, make a payment to Mrs X for the frustration and uncertainty the delays caused and put a service improvement in place for decision letters. The Council has already put service improvements in place for delays and communication.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind relevant staff of the need to send decision letters telling parents if it will issue an Education, Health and Care Plan.

  • Leeds City Council (23 017 278)

    Category: Education Date: 06-Jun-2024

    Summary

    Ms X complains about the delay in the Council issuing an Education, Health and Care Plan for Child Y. She also complains about how the Council carried out the Education, Health and Care needs assessment and the Education, Health and Care Plan issued. We find fault with the Council for the delay in issuing Child Y’s Education, Health and Care Plan. The Council has agreed to pay a financial remedy in recognition of the delay and carry out service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to develop a long-term plan to address the delay because of Educational Psychologists. This will include taking it to the relevant scrutiny committee or panel and providing the Ombudsman with a copy once complete.

  • Leeds City Council (23 016 943)

    Category: Housing Date: 06-Oct-2024

    Summary

    The Council failed to inform Mr X of its decision that he was not homeless in March 2023, which caused him uncertainty. The Council later failed to make further enquiries into a disclosure that Mr X may have been homeless due to domestic abuse, which caused him further uncertainty. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mr X for the injustice caused and carry out service improvements. We have not investigated Mr X’s complaint about his banding on the housing register as there is no worthwhile outcome achievable from further investigation.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to remind homelessness staff to send its decisions in writing. This includes if it decides a person is not homeless.The Council has agreed to remind homelessness staff to make further enquiries where a person indicates they are homeless due to domestic abuse and make a decision on whether any duty is owed in relation to this.The Council has agreed to remind staff to check for key information such as where there have been allegations of domestic abuse in a person’s homelessness application, before contacting the applicant for an assessment.

  • Leeds City Council (23 014 197)

    Category: Education Date: 20-Jan-2025

    Summary

    Mr X complained the Council failed to provide his son with an Education Health and Care Plan (EHC Plan) within statutory timescales and failed to provide alternative education while he was excluded. We found there was delay in producing the EHC Plan. We found the Council had made an offer of alternative education but it did not properly determine if this was suitable as it did not have sufficient regard to Y’s Special Educational Needs. We recommended an apology, a payment and action to clarify procedures for its officers.

    Service improvements

    Circulate a briefing note to all relevant staff in its Area Inclusion Partnership to clarify the councils legal duty to provide education following a permanent exclusion, and to confirm that the council retains this duty to provide an education even if an exclusion is appealed. Also to set out what advice and information needs to be given to parents about finding a new permanent school place following an exclusion.

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