Milton Keynes Council (23 009 542)

Statement Upheld Other 17-Apr-2024

Summary: Mr X complained the Council failed to properly consider his request to release restrictive covenants on his property. We find the Council at fault for failing to have a process in place for dealing with these requests. We also find the Council at fault for delays in responding to Mr X, for delays in reaching a final decision, and for failing to provide clear explanations. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mr X, make a payment to recognise the injustice caused, and act to prevent recurrence.

Milton Keynes Council (23 015 685)

Statement Upheld Other 27-May-2024

Summary: Mr X complains the Council decided without his involvement that it would place his disabled son, P, in residential care. However, that did not happen, and P is now settled in a day service placement of his parents’ choice, funded through the NHS. There is no evidence that P or his family suffered any injustice as a result of this or Mr X’s other concern, that he was treated differently because he had complained, and so the investigation is now closed.

Milton Keynes Council (23 006 611)

Statement Upheld Special educational needs 01-Aug-2024

Summary: We have found fault with the Council for failing to deliver the social care provision in Mr X’s son’s (Y’s) Education Health Care Plan. This caused Y and his family an avoidance injustice. The Council has agreed to remedy this injustice.

Milton Keynes Council (23 020 138)

Statement Upheld Councillor conduct and standards 15-Sep-2024

Summary: Mr X said the Council failed to properly consider his complaint about a councillor and then failed to tell him about the Ombudsman. We found no fault in how the Council reached its decision on Mr X’s councillor complaint. But the Council delayed signposting Mr X to us although that delay did not cause him significant injustice. However, to prevent such delay possibly causing injustice to others in the future, the Council agreed to take steps to ensure people were made aware they could complain to us.

Milton Keynes Council (24 001 809)

Statement Upheld Refuse and recycling 23-Sep-2024

Summary: Mr B complains the Council’s contractor does not return his bins to the collection point and instead leaves them at his gate, despite being registered to receive assisted refuse collections. There was fault by the Council in the way it repeatedly failed to return Mr B’s bins to the agreed assisted collection point. Because of this, Mr B suffered frustration and uncertainty and could not access his bins. The Council will apologise to Mr B, make a symbolic payment, monitor his collections and issue a staff briefing.

Milton Keynes Council (23 009 817)

Statement Upheld Special educational needs 23-Oct-2024

Summary: Mrs X complained about the Council’s failure to provide her son with a full-time education and support for his special educational needs. We found the Council was at fault. It failed to carry out an annual review and update the Education, Health and Care Plan to reflect his change in circumstances. It also took too long to respond to Mrs X’s complaint. To remedy the injustice caused by these faults, the Council has agreed to apologise, make a payment to Mrs X and take action to improve its service. We did not investigate some of Mrs X’s complaint because it was late.

Milton Keynes Council (24 003 185)

Statement Upheld Charging 03-Dec-2024

Summary: Mr X complains the Council is wrongly charging Mrs X for care fees. He says this impacts his emotional wellbeing and causes her financial stress. We find no fault with the Council charging care fees. However, we have found fault with its handling of the complaints. The Council has agreed to make a payment to Mr X to acknowledge its poor complaint handling.

Milton Keynes Council (24 001 734)

Statement Upheld Child protection 20-Dec-2024

Summary: Miss B complained about the actions of the Council in respect of her child who was a looked after child. We found the Council took too long to respond to her complaint but its apology and offer of £550 is an adequate way of putting matters right.

Milton Keynes Council (24 007 708)

Statement Upheld Special educational needs 09-Jan-2025

Summary: Mrs X complained the Council delayed completing an assessment for an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan for her child, Y. The Council was at fault. It did not complete an assessment or decide whether to issue an EHC Plan in line with statutory timescales. This caused Mrs X frustration and uncertainty. The Council has already apologised to Mrs X which was appropriate. The Council has agreed to make a symbolic payment to Mrs X to recognise the injustice caused. It will also provide us with an action plan in response to managing delays with EHC needs assessments.

Milton Keynes Council (24 006 946)

Statement Upheld Homelessness 20-Jan-2025

Summary: Miss B says the Council failed to act to prevent her becoming homeless and wrongly referred her case to another local authority when she could not return there due to experiencing abuse. The concerns about the referral to another local authority are outside the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction. The Council dealt with the initial homeless application properly but did not provide Miss B with accommodation as it should have done. An apology, payment to Miss B and training for officers is satisfactory remedy.