Service improvements

Medway 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 - 8 of 8 cases with service improvements

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

  • Medway Council (22 007 595)

    Category: Education Date: 20-Mar-2023

    Summary

    There was fault by the Council when it failed to maintain sufficient oversight to make sure it was meeting its duty to provide the complainant’s son with suitable education. This meant that the child missed education for almost two years. The Council has agreed to my recommendations to remedy the injustice to the complainant and her son.

    Service improvements

    The Council will review its working practices and policies so that it retains oversight and responsibility for its duties to children unable to attend school

  • Medway Council (22 002 267)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 23-Nov-2022

    Summary

    Mrs C complained the Council failed to provide suitable care support and supported accommodation to Mr X for over 14 months. She said it caused delays and its social workers lied and failed to respond to her. We found the Council caused delays to assess Mr X’s care needs and place him in a suitable accommodation. Its social workers made errors and failed to respond to some reasonable enquiries from Mrs C. The Council agreed apologise to Mrs C and Mr X and may payment to remedy the injustice its faults caused.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind its social workers to respond to reasonable communication from service users or their representatives without delay, complete agreed actions, and keep records up to date. This is to avoid delays and to enable the Council’s Duty Team to respond to enquiries when its social workers are unavailable.The Council will remind its social workers to offer and complete carer’s assessments without delay where family members, or other persons, are providing care for a service user. This includes circumstances when is becomes clear the care support may not be resolved in the short term, or the carer shares concerns about continuing to provide the care support.The Council will remind its staff of the importance of ensuring Care Act Assessments are completed, and appropriate support to meet the needs identified are be put in place without delay.The Council will review how the Council supports service users who has been assessed to have eligible care needs and needs some form of supported accommodation, to ensure all staff understands the process and which service is responsible for meeting care and accommodation needs.

  • Medway Council (22 001 113)

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

    Summary

    Mrs X complained that the Council failed to effectively search for a suitable care placement for her mother, Mrs P. She says the family felt pressured to accept an unaffordable placement. The Council undertook a thorough search for a placement for Mrs P. However, ultimately, it was at fault for failing to provide a genuine choice of placement. This caused Mrs P an injustice as she felt she had to pay a top-up fee to place her mother in a suitable care home.

    Service improvements

    The Council should inform the Ombudsman of the outcome of its legal advice and what steps it has taken to ensure that it can be reasonably satisfied that a person agreeing to pay a top-up fee is willing and able to meet the extra costs of that fee for the duration of any agreement.

  • Medway Council (21 018 092)

    Category: Education Date: 17-Nov-2022

    Summary

    The Council failed to make suitable alternative provision for Mrs B’s son, C, when he was unable to attend school because of anxiety. This caused the family significant distress and C missed out on education. The Council has agreed to apologise and make a payment to Mrs B to remedy the injustice caused.

    Service improvements

    The Council has also agreed that it will issue a written reminder to relevant staff to ensure they are aware of the Council’s duties under Section 19 of the Education Act 1996 to provide suitable education for children of compulsory school age who cannot attend school because of exclusion, medical reasons or otherwise.

  • Medway Council (21 017 310)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 20-Oct-2022

    Summary

    The Council took too long to review Mr B’s financial assessment which allowed arrears to accrue. It also did not properly consider whether he could afford to pay the arrears. The Council has agreed to take the action recommended below.

    Service improvements

    Review how it considers payment arrangements so that it satisfies itself that these are affordable and do not allow the person’s available income to fall below the personal expenditure allowance.Review and where needed update its internal guidance on how it decides payment arrangements and share this with relevant staff.

  • Medway Council (21 016 583)

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

    Summary

    Mr X complains the Council’s care provider, Brabyns House, failed to secure his late mother’s possessions after she died, resulting in them being lost or destroyed. Brabyns House accepts it did not act carefully before disposing of the possessions, which had significant sentimental value and cannot be replaced. The Council needs to apologise, pay financial redress and work with Brabyns House to make sure it has procedures in place to prevent this from happening again.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to work with the Care Home to make sure it has the procedures inplace to prevent this from happening again.

  • Medway Council (21 012 591)

    Category: Education Date: 22-Nov-2022

    Summary

    Mrs X complained about the Council’s failure to provide her son, who has special educational needs with a suitable education and related matters. We have found the Council to be at fault because it failed to provide alternative education when Mrs X’s son was too ill to attend school and did not properly consider what level of home tuition was suitable. To remedy the missed education and distress, the Council has agreed to apologise, make a payment to Mrs X and review its practices. We did not investigate parts of Mrs X’s complaint because they either happened too long ago or were matters that were appealable to the Tribunal.

    Service improvements

    The Council will ensure that it provides alternative education for children who are unable to attend school at the correct time, even if medical evidence is not immediately available.The Council will ensure evidence is obtained when making a decision about the amount of alternative education that is suitable for the child.

  • Medway Council (21 006 711)

    Category: Education Date: 02-Aug-2022

    Summary

    There was a failure by the Council to secure provision in an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan when the NHS did not do so. There was also delay in updating an EHC plan to name a post-16 placement and providing a right of appeal. This led to some special educational provision being missed. There was no fault in failing to secure suitable education during COVID-19 when a place in a school resource centre was made available. The Council will apologise, make a financial payment and implement service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind officers that the legal duty to secure special educational provision in an Education, Health and Care plan is non-delegable and ensure it has processes in place to check provision in an Education, Health and Care plan is secured.The Council will improve processes to ensure transition reviews of Education, Health and Care plans are held in time to complete necessary steps by the statutory deadlines.

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