Service improvements

Milton Keynes Council

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2025 and 31 March 2026

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 - 10 of 14 cases with service improvements

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

  • Milton Keynes Council (25 011 975)

    Category: Education Date: 04-Feb-2026

    Summary

    The Council was at fault for failing to properly consider Mrs X’s request for a school admission outside of chronological age group for her two summer born children in line with the relevant law and guidance. This caused Mrs X distress, frustration and uncertainty about her children’s education. The Council has agreed to apologise and review its decision.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to review its admissions policy to ensure that in the future, requests for admission outside of chronological age group are considered in line with the relevant law and guidance

  • Milton Keynes Council (25 006 747)

    Category: Education Date: 23-Feb-2026

    Summary

    Mr X complained about the Council’s handling of his child, Y’s education. The Council was at fault for failing to maintain oversight and secure therapy provision as set out in Y’s final Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan between April and September 2025 after a SEND tribunal order. The Council agreed to apologise and make a payment to acknowledge Y’s loss of provision and for the injustice caused to both Mr X and Y.

    Service improvements

    The Council have agreed to implement staff training to ensure officers are aware of the Council’s duty to maintain oversight of securing provisions set out in EHC plans

  • Milton Keynes Council (25 005 477)

    Category: Education Date: 10-Mar-2026

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council failed to secure the special educational provision in her child, Y’s, Education, Health and Care Plan following an appeal to the First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability). She also complained it failed to provide Y with a suitable education when they could not attend school. We found fault by the Council for not securing a suitable education or support for Y when they could not attend school. The Council has agreed to apologise and make a payment to recognise the injustice caused to Mrs X and Y. It also agreed to make changes to its service to prevent the same faults from happening to others.

    Service improvements

    The Council will review its process for sending out amended Education, Health and Care Plans to make sure these are always sent to parents and young people when they are finalised, with a covering decision letter. It will identify any improvements it can make to this process to prevent the fault from this complaint happening again. It will send us the outcome of its review and, if applicable, send us a timebound plan of when it will make any changesThrough email or a staff briefing, the Council will remind relevant staff of the legal duty to ensure the bulk of a child or young person’s special educational provision in their Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan should be in place within five weeks of a Tribunal’s order to amend the EHC Plan. In particular, it will remind staff this means the Council should not wait until after the final amended EHC Plan is issued to start the process of securing special educational provision.

  • Milton Keynes Council (24 022 292)

    Category: Housing Date: 06-Jul-2025

    Summary

    We will not investigate this complaint about the priority the Council awarded to a housing register application. We have upheld parts of the complaint, and the Council has agreed to take appropriate action. It would therefore not be proportionate to investigate.

    Service improvements

    Within four weeks of our final decision, the Council will:· Remind Reviewing Officersto:o Ensure reasons for their decision are included in the review in linewith the statutory guidance. o Ensure they direct housing applicants to the correct process tochallenge a banding decision, in line with the Council’s Allocations Policy.

  • Milton Keynes Council (24 022 038)

    Category: Education Date: 03-Dec-2025

    Summary

    Miss X complained the Council failed to provide her son with sufficient education or ensure her son received the provision in his EHC Plan. The Council’s decision making was delayed and lacked clarity and its communications with Miss X were poor. That caused Miss X uncertainty and distress. An apology, payment to Miss X and training for officers is satisfactory remedy.

    Service improvements

    The Council will take action to ensure the specialist placement allocation panel keeps a note of its decisions.The Council will hold a training session for officers in its education department. That training should cover the Council’s section 19 duties and its role in arranging and monitoring alternative provision.

  • Milton Keynes Council (24 022 016)

    Category: Children's care services Date: 05-Feb-2026

    Summary

    There was fault in complaint handling by the Council for which it has apologised and offered an appropriate symbolic payment. The Council has agreed to complete an action plan of steps to address its delay in complaint handling. Other matters Ms X raised have been considered by the court (or could reasonably have been raised by Mrs X in court) and so we ended the investigation of them.

    Service improvements

    The Council will devise an action plan setting out how it will comply with the timescales in the children's statutory complaint procedure.The Council will provide us with a report of all statutory children's complaints received between 1 October 2025 and 1 October 2026. The report should be anonymised and include the date each complaint was received and the dates of responses under each stage of the procedure.

  • Milton Keynes Council (24 018 449)

    Category: Transport and highways Date: 27-Jul-2025

    Summary

    Mr B complained that the Council failed to respond to his enquiries about a dangerous stretch of road near his property. We found the Council failed to respond to his enquiries on several occasions causing frustration and possible delay to the speed reduction. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mr B, pay him £100 and improve its procedures for the future.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to remind officers of the need to keep notes of ongoing cases to ensure matters can be picked up promptly in the event of unexpected absence and delays avoided.

  • Milton Keynes Council (24 018 294)

    Category: Education Date: 30-Oct-2025

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council failed to provide alternative provision to her daughter when she could not attend school. We found the Council at fault for not properly considering its duties for alternative provision, causing frustration, distress and missed education. The Council has agreed to apologise, make a symbolic payment to recognise the injustice, and take action to prevent future recurrence of fault.

    Service improvements

    The Council should share a copy of our Out of school, out of sight? focus report to relevant staff. It should highlight key points to ensure officers are aware of their responsibilities in relation to the Section 19 duty. This should include that it is the Council’s ultimate duty to arrange alternative provision, what factors they should consider when deciding if there is a duty for it to act, including assessing the child’s individual needs and circumstances. It should also remind staff to properly record its reasons for decisions made at the time.

  • Milton Keynes Council (24 014 921)

    Category: Education Date: 25-Aug-2025

    Summary

    Mr B says the Council failed to identify a special school for his son when he moved into the area and failed to put in place enough hours of alternative provision while it looked for a school place. The Council began a prompt search for a school for Mr B’s son but only put limited education in place for him. That meant Mr B’s son missed out on education provision. An apology, payment to Mr B and reminder to officers is satisfactory remedy.

    Service improvements

    The Council will:•remind officers dealing with children out of school of the need to ensure any alternative provision is sufficient to meet the Council’s section 19 responsibility and to ensure the number of hours provided is kept under review;•remind officers dealing with children who are out of school about the need to keep parents up to date with what is happening.

  • Milton Keynes Council (24 012 832)

    Category: Housing Date: 08-May-2025

    Summary

    Ms D complained the Council had placed her family in unsuitable interim and temporary accommodation. Based on current evidence I have upheld the complaint and the Council has agreed to pay financial redress to Ms D to recognise the time her family had to spend in unsuitable accommodation.

    Service improvements

    consider making a record of housing (temporary accommodation) panel meetingsconsider the LGSCO guide for practitioners: unsuitable temporary accommodation and set out what improvement actions will be taken

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