Service improvements

Milton Keynes 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 1 - 8 of 8 cases with service improvements

Export results (CSV)

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

  • Milton Keynes Council (24 009 747)

    Category: Housing Date: 24-Jan-2025

    Summary

    Ms T complained about the way the Council dealt with disrepair at her temporary accommodation. She says she and her family had to remain in a property with severe damp and mould as the Council failed to address her complaints. We found the Council at fault. The Council has agreed to make a payment to Ms T in recognition of the injustice caused.

    Service improvements

    Within three months of the decision, the Council will review its process for dealing with complaints of disrepair. It will ensure its process includes checking with the complainant that the landlord has done what they say they have, and will remind all relevant staff to do this.

  • Milton Keynes Council (24 007 708)

    Category: Education Date: 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.

    Service improvements

    The Council will provide the Ombudsman with an action plan setting out the efforts it is making to reduce delays in the Education, Health and Care Plan process including delays in obtaining educational psychologist advice.

  • Milton Keynes Council (24 006 946)

    Category: Housing Date: 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.

    Service improvements

    The Council will carry out a training session for officers making decisions on homeless applications to cover:the point at which a review right applies when a referral is being considered to another local authority;the Council’s requirement to provide accommodation until the conditions for referral are agreed where an applicant is considered to have a priority need;the Council’s discretionary power to provide accommodation while considering a review request.

  • Milton Keynes Council (24 001 809)

    Category: Environment and regulation Date: 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.

    Service improvements

    The Council will issue a briefing to relevant staff members including those who work for the contractor to remind them of the importance of returning bins to the agreed collection point for people registered to receive assisted collections. This will help to ensure all people registered to receive assisted collections receive the service they are signed up for.

  • Milton Keynes Council (23 020 138)

    Category: Other Categories Date: 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.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to write to officers that handle complaints about councillors reminding them to signpost complainants to the Ombudsman on completion of the Council’s complaints procedure.The Council agreed to update its website to ensure people making complaints about councillors are told about their right to complain to the Ombudsman.

  • Milton Keynes Council (23 009 817)

    Category: Education Date: 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.

    Service improvements

    The Council will reflect on the issues raised in this decision statement and identify any areas of service improvement, specifically around holding annual reviews and delay in the EHC Plan process. The Council should prepare a short report setting out what the Council intends to do to ensure similar problems do not reoccur. This report should be sent to the Ombudsman.

  • Milton Keynes Council (23 009 542)

    Category: Planning Date: 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.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to create a process for considering requests to release restrictive covenants on previously council owned land.

  • Milton Keynes Council (23 000 946)

    Category: Children's care services Date: 27-Feb-2025

    Summary

    Mrs G complained about the decision by NHS Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes Integrated Care Board (the ICB) to reduce the night-time support for her child, D. She also complained about the way Milton Keynes Council (the Council) considered respite for the family and a preferred placement. We found fault in the way the ICB decided to reduce night-time support as it did not follow the recommendations from an independent assessment or properly consider the impact its decision would have on D’s parents. This likely caused D’s parents avoidable worry and distress. The Council did not provide enough support to meet the family’s needs but acted to put things right during our investigation. There was a lack of joined up working when assessing D’s health and social care needs. The ICB and Council have accepted our recommendations to complete a holistic review of D’s needs, apologise to Mrs G, make acknowledgement payments and improve their processes. We have now completed our investigation.

    Service improvements

    The Council and NHS Integrated Care Board (ICB) will work together to provide an action plan with details of the review of their continuing care procedures to ensure assessments are carried out in a joined up and holistic way, in line with the National Framework for Children and Young People's Continuing Care. This review should address how the organisations will ensure assessments represent a holistic and multi-agency consideration of a child's needs alongside those of their family. The results of this review, and details of any remedial action take, should be shared with the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee and the Ombudsmen when completed.

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