Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council
Annual statistics ?Find out more about annual statistics
Annual letters
We write to councils each year to give a summary of the complaint statistics we record about them,
and their performance in responding to our investigations.
Public reports ?Find out more about public reports
In the last eight years, the Ombudsman has published the following public interest reports against Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council
Rochdale council’s legal challenge rejected and it must now consider Ombudsman's recommendations
Councillors in Rochdale have been told to give proper consideration to a critical report about the way their council pays Special Guardians, after the council unsuccessfully challenged the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman’s decision and powers in the High Court.
Service improvements ?Find out more about service improvements
Since April 2018, the Council has agreed to make the following improvements to its services following an Ombudsman investigation. We list up to 10 cases below – click ‘view all’ if there are more.
Case reference: 20 014 052
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Residential care
- The Council will explain what action it has taken with the Care Home (under new ownership and management) to ensure it provides care in line with CQC fundamental standards, addressing the learning identified by this complaint about: arranging for prompt re-assessment of needs by the Council, where a resident’s needs have changed significantly and the Home considers it is no longer able to safely meet their needs arranging for assessment of a resident’s potential eligibility for NHS Funded Nursing Care or Continuing Healthcare through completion of an NHS Continuing Healthcare Checklist, where the resident’s needs indicate they may have health needs needing nursing care putting temporary care interventions in place at the Home whilst awaiting a re-assessment of a resident’s needs, such as obtaining specialist input from district nurses / tissue viability nurses / continence specialists / GP's, to ensure that as far as possible the resident’s needs continue to be met at the Home
- The Council will explain what steps it has taken to ensure requests for re-assessments of a care home resident's needs do not ‘fall between the cracks’ and get overlooked.
- The Council will produce and share a SMART action plan setting out the action it has taken, itself and with the Care Home, to prevent a recurrence of the failings in this case. The failings relate to not properly managing a Care Home resident's leg condition and continence needs, and delaying too long in arranging to re-assess the resident's care needs.
Case reference: 20 009 633
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Domiciliary care
- The Council has agreed to increase audit processes and random sample the electronic information supplied by care providers on the care delivered to esnure charges are accurate.
Case reference: 20 008 484
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Residential care
- The Council has agreed to make relevant Adult Social Care staff aware of the need to invite family representatives to Continuing Health Care checklist assessments where appropriate.
Case reference: 20 005 610
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Friends and family carers
- The Council will review all child arrangement orders made since May 2017
- The Council will reviews its decisions not to proceed with complaint escalation requests since May 2017
Case reference: 20 005 471
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Residential care
- The Council will ensure the Care Provider involved in this complaint reminds staff they should seek medical advice as soon as possible after a resident falls.
- The Council will ensure the Care Provider involved in this complaint reminds staff they should record when a resident refuses support with personal care and what action is taken in response.
Case reference: 19 014 618
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Assessment and care plan
- Remind relevant staff that there is no requirement for carers to be the main carer or to provide care for 35 hours a week to be eligible for carer’s support.
Case reference: 19 005 739
Category: Education
Sub Category: School admissions
- The Council has agreed to send a copy of this final decision statement to all appeal clerks and panel members so they can read it and learn from our findings. In a covering email or brief, it should stress the importance of following the School Admissions Appeals Code and ensuring panel members consider all the information relevant to an appeal before making their decision. Likewise, it should advise panels to adjourn hearings to a later date if they do not have all the information they need to decide an appeal on the day it is heard, so this information can be obtained and considered.
Case reference: 19 004 521
Category: Benefits and tax
Sub Category: Council tax
- Review its policy on discounts on council tax for empty properties, ensuring the service-user is sign posted to the Tribunal if they wish to appeal a decision in relation to discounts on council tax.
- Consider reviewing its systems so that if agreements are reached on council tax payments, any agreement is communicated clearly to the service-user.
Case reference: 18 004 267
Category: Planning
Sub Category: Planning applications
- The Council has provided guidance to its planning team following the lessons learned from this case about the correct process for determining planning applications by officers .
Case reference: 17 003 729
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Friends and family carers
- The Council will carry out an urgent review of its policies and procedures surrounding family and friends carers, particularly around the information given to carers at the outset and when there is a change in circumstances.
Last updated: 4 April 2015