Service improvements

Sheffield City Council

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023

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 10 cases with service improvements

Export results (CSV)

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

  • Sheffield City Council (22 000 694)

    Category: Education Date: 03-Oct-2022

    Summary

    There was fault by the Council. There were administrative errors and delays sending a final Education, Health and Care plan after mediation. There were also delays referring child Y for home tuition, which meant she spent 7 months with no formal education. Finalising the Education, Health and Care plan, reviewing procedures and making a payment to Y and Mrs X remedies the injustice.

    Service improvements

    The Council should review its procedures to ensure that administrative errors (such as sending the wrong documents) do not recur.

  • Sheffield City Council (21 018 782)

    Category: Education Date: 29-Nov-2022

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council delayed its review of her daughter’s EHCP, delayed notifying her right of appeal and failed to arrange all the educational provision specified, resulting in missed education and distress. We found the Council at fault. We recommended it apologise, pay £1000 for distress, pay £5200 for missed provision; fund provision that remains outstanding and; provide training to staff to prevent recurrence.

    Service improvements

    The Council will provide training or guidance to staff working in Children’s Services on the Council’s statutory duties, including timescales for the Education Health and Care plan review process; notifying rights of appeal with a final Education Health and Care plan and the duty to secure section f provision (educational provision outlined in the Education Health and Care plan).

  • Sheffield City Council (21 011 551)

    Category: Environment and regulation Date: 09-Jan-2023

    Summary

    Mr X complained about how the Council decided to award street trading consents for three sites to a company other than his. The Council was not at fault in how it allocated the consents. It was at fault for poor complaint handling, which caused Mr X undue frustration. The Council will apologise and pay Mr X £100.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind staff in its Parks and Countryside Service and Licensing Service of its complaints policy. This will include when to respond to contact as a complaint and that they should work together to provide complainants with a joined up, comprehensive and timely response when they receive complaints about issues that involve more than one service.

  • Sheffield City Council (21 011 239)

    Category: Environment and regulation Date: 07-Jun-2022

    Summary

    It was for the Council to decide whether to suspend indoor collections of bulky waste, because of concerns about the spread of COVID-19. The Council should have ensured it made an assessment of the likely impact of this suspension on disabled people, but this did not cause a direct injustice to the complainant. There was an injustice to the complainant caused by the delay and confusion in the Council’s complaint handling, which it has now agreed to remedy. We have therefore completed our investigation.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to circulate guidance to relevant staff to ensure they understand its policy on dealing with complaints about waste collection.

  • Sheffield City Council (21 010 289)

    Category: Education Date: 31-Aug-2022

    Summary

    Miss H complains the Council and Trust significantly delayed her son J’s Education, Health and Care Plan annual review, and J did not receive the 1-1 speech and language therapy sessions in his plan. There was fault by the Council and Trust. There were long delays in the annual review process, and in the response to Miss H’s complaint. The Council failed to ensure J received the speech and language education provision in his plan. This has caused an injustice as J has missed out on educational provision in his plan, and Miss H has suffered stress and upset. The Council and Trust have agreed to apologise, pay a financial remedy to Miss H, complete the annual review and make improvements to their services.

    Service improvements

    The Council will review its processes to ensure it amends and issues Education Health and Care Plans (EHC Plans) following an annual review in line with statutory timescales and the requirements of the SEND Code of Practice. It will also review its procedures for carrying out interim / emergency reviews of EHC Plans, in line with the requirements of the Code.The Council will ensure it has a mechanism in place to check provision specified in an Education Health and Care Plan (EHC Plan) is arranged from the start of a new or amended plan. It will also review sources of Speech and Language Therapy (SALT) services and develop a plan to ensure it can commission SALT therapies needed to support the EHC Plans it maintains.The Council will explain the work completed with the Integrated Care Board and Children’s Hospital and other partners to review Speech and Language Therapy (SALT) services across the city, to ensure there is adequate high-quality support for all children who need SALT input. The Council will also submit a report on this to the relevant council scrutiny committee.

  • Sheffield City Council (21 009 789)

    Category: Education Date: 13-Apr-2022

    Summary

    Mr X complained about the outcome of his home to school transport appeal for his son, which is causing the family financial difficulty. We find the Council is at fault. The Council’s appeal panel failed to consider all the evidence Mr X provided. We recommended it apologise to Mr X and offer him a fresh appeal hearing.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind the school transport appeal panel that its decision notice needs to include reference to all the evidence considered.

  • Sheffield City Council (21 007 520)

    Category: Children's care services Date: 29-Jun-2022

    Summary

    Mr S complains the Council did not suitably consider his concerns about the care his daughter was receiving when in care. Mr S complains the Council did not recognise the impact of the issues he raised. The Ombudsman finds fault with the Council for failing to consider suitable recommendations during the stage three review. This caused Mr S and Child P significant injustice and meant the Council did not fully address Mr S’s concerns. The Council has agreed a financial remedy and service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to review how stage three investigations make recommendations at the end of the investigation. The Council should review how it will address parts complaints that are upheld and ensure there are actions to ensure these are addressed.The Council has also agreed to share the final decision with the stage three panel.The Council has agreed to review whether further visits were recorded that did not take place, and audit other cases where the social worker may have populated visits. If the Council finds that other visits were recorded, it should consider whether a referral to the appropriate regulatory body is necessary. The Council should tell the Ombudsman of the result of this audit.The Council has agreed to review how and when it communicates with parents about health concerns and developments for children, and consider providing further training to staff in this area.

  • Sheffield City Council (21 003 003)

    Category: Housing Date: 26-May-2022

    Summary

    Miss X complains about the Council’s failure to resolve disrepair problems with her temporary accommodation year, its decision to end its homelessness duty and failure to take account of her disability and vulnerability. There was fault in the Council’s handling, some of which has caused Miss X injustice. The Council has agreed to apologise and make a payment to Miss X. It will also provide further training and guidance to relevant staff on the importance of offering and making reasonable adjustments.

    Service improvements

    Training for all relevant staff about the Council's public sector equality duty and the importance of asking about and making reasonable adjustmentswritten guidance for all relevant staff on reasonable adjustments, including how to seek information and examples of adjustments that can be madereview and amend existing staff procedures and applications forms to ensure questions about reasonable adjustments are imbedded in the process when a person approaches the Council as homeless or in need of housing. Revised procedures should include methods for ensuring any reasonable adjustments are clearly recorded and consistently provided.

  • Sheffield City Council (21 000 853)

    Category: Education Date: 01-Nov-2022

    Summary

    We found fault by the Council on Mrs J’s complaint about its failure to reach a decision on whether to issue her son with an Education, health, and care plan within statutory timescales. The Council failed to reach its decision and notify Mrs J of it within the timescale. It also failed to deal with her complaint properly. The agreed action remedies the injustice caused.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to look at why there was a failure to deal with the complaint sent in April 2021 properly and promptly.

  • Sheffield City Council (21 000 037)

    Category: Environment and regulation Date: 24-Apr-2022

    Summary

    The Ombudsman found fault by the Council on Ms J’s complaint about its failure to take enforcement action against noisy neighbours. It failed to provide us with complete records, show it considered and reached a decision on her acoustic report, and failed to show whether officers properly considered and reviewed the case after witnessing two breaches of an abatement notice. The agreed action remedies the injustice caused.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to take steps to ensure it knows why there are gaps in the evidence it provided in support of its response to our enquiries.The Council agreed to ensure officers are reminded of the need to have a proper record of their consideration of, and their decision on, evidence provided privately by a complainant, such as an acoustic report.The Council agreed to ensure officers are reminded of the need to have clear records of reviews, and decisions taken on those reviews, after witnessing, or having monitoring equipment evidence, a breach of an abatement notice.The Council agreed to give officers clear updated guidance about the noise procedure it expects them to follow, especially following breaches of abatement notices.

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