Service improvements

London Borough of Barnet

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 - 5 of 5 cases with service improvements

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Downloads the current filtered list of service improvement decisions for London Borough of Barnet as a CSV file.

  • London Borough of Barnet (22 006 173)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 03-Mar-2023

    Summary

    Miss X complained the Council failed to act in response to her safeguarding concerns about Mr Y. There was no fault in the Council’s safeguarding response or in the way the Council communicated with Miss X about her concerns. The Council was at fault for failing to signpost Miss X to the Ombudsman, but Miss X was not caused an injustice by this.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind relevant officers that when it decides not to issue a complaint response, it should inform complainants of their right to bring their complaint to the Ombudsman.

  • London Borough of Barnet (22 002 246)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 10-Mar-2023

    Summary

    Mr X complained the Council breached an agreement by attempting to visit his property without notification or appointment and failed to put in place any support following a fall. There is no evidence the Council breached an agreement with Mr X when visiting his property. The Council failed to consider whether to provide emergency support following a fall but that is unlikely to have resulted in Mr X missing out on support. A reminder to officers is satisfactory remedy.

    Service improvements

    The Council should remind officers in adult social care of the provisions of the care and statutory support guidance relating to the power the Council has to provide care support in an emergency even when an assessment has not been completed.

  • London Borough of Barnet (22 000 355)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 24-Feb-2023

    Summary

    Mr and Mrs C complained about the way the Council dealt with concerns its care provider was not meeting their son’s communication needs, falsifying documents relating to his mental capacity assessment and allowing financial abuse to continue. They say their son was put at avoidable risk of harm and financial abuse and they remain anxious about his care and suffered unnecessary distress. We have found fault by the Council in the way it dealt with a safeguarding enquiry but consider the agreed action of an apology, £200 and review of procedure provides a suitable remedy.

    Service improvements

    The Council will review its safeguarding process to ensure it provides a timely response to future reports and communicates the outcome with clear reasons to affected parties.

  • London Borough of Barnet (21 018 130)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 02-Mar-2023

    Summary

    Mr X complained about the way the Council dealt with his request for a care needs assessment and took over two years to provide support. He says this caused him much stress and anxiety and affected his mental health. We find the Council was at fault and caused Mr X an increased risk of harm, undue stress and anxiety, time and trouble. We recommended it apologise, reimburse him for the care he paid for, with an amount equivalent to his direct payment, and £600 for the injustice it caused. We also recommended it take action to improve its practice in future. The Council agreed to these recommendations.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to review its processes to ensure preparing care and support plans for people with eligible care needs is an integral part of the assessment process. It should make sure all front-line staff are aware that assessments must be carried out in line with the statutory guidance.The Council has agreed to provide details of its process for prioritising assessments and reviews, and details of actions taken to reduce waiting times. The Council has already provided this information in response to my draft decision. It advises that it has reduced the waiting times and has achieved 80% of assessments within 28 days.The Council has agreed to put in place an ongoing programme of training in autism so that all assessors and their managers, have regularly updated specialist training. All staff should receive autism awareness training within the general equality and diversity training programme.The Council has agreed to review its complaint handling to ensure complaints are responded to in line with the Council’s policy.

  • London Borough of Barnet (21 016 847)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 02-Oct-2022

    Summary

    Ms X complains about poor care provided to her mother, Ms Y, and poor communication from a Council-commissioned home care provider between June 2021 and February 2022. She said the poor care and poor communication have caused her and her mother distress. The Council was at fault. The care provider did not administer Ms Y’s medication safely, there was poor record keeping which has caused uncertainty and poor complaints handling. The faults did not cause Ms Y any harm, but the Council has agreed to apologise to Ms X and pay her £200 in recognition of the distress and uncertainty caused.

    Service improvements

    The Council will hold a quality assurance meeting with a Council-commissioned care provider to discuss: the safe adminstration of medications;record keeping;its response to complaints.It will take appropriate action to assure itself that the care provider is delivering a safe and high quality service and provide evidence to the Ombudsman of the meeting and any resulting action plan.

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