Service improvements

Northumberland County 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 - 4 of 4 cases with service improvements

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

  • Northumberland County Council (25 002 035)

    Category: Education Date: 30-Mar-2026

    Summary

    There was fault by the Council in failing to have oversight of alternative education when a pupil was severely absent over an extended period. This casts doubt on whether the education offered was suitable. It is too speculative to say whether, but for this fault, the pupil would have been able to engage in more education. This uncertainty is an injustice. The Council will apologise, make a symbolic payment to acknowledge the distress and uncertainty, and carry out service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council will consider our Guide for Practitioners: Supporting children out of school issued in October 2025, as well as recent statutory guidance on attendance and children with mental health conditions, and consider whether any amendments to its staff guidance are required.The Council will consider how to improve its record keeping when children are in receipt of s.19 education so it can evidence decisions are made and shared, reviews have taken place, progress is tracked and additional action taken where relevant.

  • Northumberland County Council (24 016 778)

    Category: Education Date: 22-Oct-2025

    Summary

    The Council was at fault for taking too long to assess Mrs X’s child, W, for an Education, Health and Care Plan and for failing to give a potential school for W accurate information about their needs. This meant W missed out on some special educational provision they should have had. To remedy W’s injustice, the Council will apologise, make a symbolic payment and issue a staff reminder.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind staff that if they receive comments on a child’s draft Education, Health and Care Planwhich will result in the Council significantly increasing the specialeducational provision a child needs, they should provide details of thosechanges to schools it is consulting with. This will enable schools to providean accurate view on whether they can meet the child’s needs.

  • Northumberland County Council (24 012 647)

    Category: Education Date: 27-Jul-2025

    Summary

    Miss B says the Council delayed issuing an education, health and care plan, failed to carry out an occupational therapy assessment, delayed responding to her request for mediation and delayed responding to her complaint. The Council delayed issuing a final EHC Plan, failed to ensure a referral for an occupational therapy assessment was made and delayed responding to her complaint. That meant Miss B’s son missed out on special educational needs provision and Miss B experienced distress and uncertainty. An apology and payment to Miss B, along with a reminder to officers, is satisfactory remedy.

    Service improvements

    The Council will send a reminder to officers dealing with EHC needs assessment and EHC Plans about the need to comply with the timescales set out in the code of practice.

  • Northumberland County Council (24 005 804)

    Category: Planning Date: 04-Dec-2025

    Summary

    Mr W complained about the Council’s handling of his planning and building regulations applications. We found the Council seriously delayed in determining his building regulations application. It also failed to update him appropriately, did not communicate with him adequately and failed to properly handle his complaints. The Council has agreed to our recommendations.

    Service improvements

    Undertake a review at a senior level in relation to the backlog of applications and produce a plan for clearing this.

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