Service improvements

Sandwell Metropolitan Borough 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 - 1 of 1 cases with service improvements

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Downloads the current filtered list of service improvement decisions for Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council as a CSV file.

  • Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council (25 000 658)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 16-Mar-2026

    Summary

    We upheld a complaint made on Ms D and Miss E’s behalf, which concerned a failure by the Council to meet Miss E’s need for care and support. We found the Council delayed for ten months before beginning an assessment of Miss E’s needs. Further fault then contributed to a delay in completing that assessment and it not completing a care and support plan or putting services in place. This caused injustice to Miss E, mainly as a loss of service. While Ms D had to meet Miss E’s needs without enough support causing her distress, added to by delay and poor communications. The Council has accepted these findings. At the end of this statement, we set out the action it has agreed to take to remedy the complainants’ injustice and avoid a repeat of its fault.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to undertake a review to consider:- the procedures used to prioritise cases when someone waits for a care needs assessment; - the communications it has with those waiting to cover matters such as waiting times and priority given to their case; - the communications it has once social care needs assessments begin to ensure they understand the steps involved before any care is put in place; - the advice and procedures it has in place to support social workers when they need to set up an urgent package of care before a needs assessment and / or care and support planning has fully completed.

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