Service improvements

Northumberland County Council

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2026 and 31 March 2027

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 - 2 of 2 cases with service improvements

Export results (CSV)

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

  • Northumberland County Council (25 011 099)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 29-Apr-2026

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council held money belonging to her late husband without informing her. We find the Council at fault for failing to clearly inform Mrs X, as executor, about the funds it held and for not following the correct order of priority by failing to consider funeral expenses first. However, after Mrs X provided evidence of the funeral costs, the Council reimbursed these in full. We are therefore satisfied there is no remaining injustice. The Council has agreed to review and update its procedures for managing finances where it acts as deputy.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to review and update its procedures for managing finances where it acts as deputy. This should ensure that when a person dies, the Council:promptly identifies and contacts the executor or personal representative; clearly informs them of any funds held; and if applicable, considers and prioritises reasonable funeral and testamentary expenses.

  • Northumberland County Council (25 010 611)

    Category: Education Date: 28-May-2026

    Summary

    Ms X complained the Council failed to provide suitable educational provision for her son Y when he was unable to attend school. She also complained about delays in the Education, Health and Care Plan process, and the Council’s poor complaints handling. We find the Council was at fault for failing to provide suitable educational provision, poor record keeping, and poor complaint handling. It is also at fault for delays in the Education, Health, and Care Plan process. This caused Ms X and Y distress and caused Y a loss of educational provision. The Council has agreed to apologise, pay a symbolic remedy and implement a service improvement.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to review its processes for identifying and monitoring children who are out of school and receiving alternative provision. This is to ensure it has effective systems for assessing the suitability of provision against a child’s individual needs including their age, educational ability, and the ability to engage with educational provision and reviewing and adjusting that provision at regular intervals where a child remains out of school for an extended period.

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