Service improvements

Somerset County Council

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022

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 - 7 of 7 cases with service improvements

Export results (CSV)

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

  • Somerset County Council (21 007 521)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 24-Feb-2022

    Summary

    Ms C complained about the Council’s decision to uphold a complaint against her and subsequently remove her from the Community Micro-Enterprise Programme (CMEP). Ms C said this resulted in her being very distressed and has affected her business. We found that, although there was some fault in the implementation of the process the Council followed, this did not affect the outcome of the process. The Council has agreed to apologise for any distress.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to share the lessons learned with Council staff who are dealing with concerns raised about care providers from the Community Micro-Enterprise Programme, to ensure tat staff will write decisions letters in a clear manner and will not make a final decision before the time period to appeal has fully passed.

  • Somerset County Council (21 002 336)

    Category: Education Date: 19-Jan-2022

    Summary

    The Ombudsman found fault by the Council on Miss P’s complaint about it failing to properly consider her request for her daughter to start reception in September 2022 rather than 2021. In its decision letter, it failed to refer to her evidence and referred to evidence it says it did not consider. The letter failed to properly explain how it reached the decision and the reasons why it was in the child’s best interests. It also failed to deal with her complaint properly. The agreed action remedies the injustice caused.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to take steps to ensure officers are reminded of the need for decision letters to clearly show how the decision was reached, the reasons for the decision and to only refer to evidence considered.The Council agreed to act to ensure the reasons for the failure to deal promptly with this complaint and to keep the complainant updated properly are identified so they are not repeated in the future.

  • Somerset County Council (20 012 349)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 11-Nov-2021

    Summary

    Ms C complains the Care Provider failed to support her mother properly and gave notice in retaliation to her complaints. The Care Provider failed to record actions which has caused uncertainty about what care it provided and when. There is no fault in the way the Care Provider issued notice, it followed its contract. To improve future practice, and remedy Ms C’s and Mrs D’s personal injustice, it should remind staff about the importance of recording, make a payment, and apologise to Ms C and Mrs D.

    Service improvements

    c) remind staff about the importance of recording actions and their accuracy; Within 3 months of the final decisiond) review how staff record actions required by a care plan. Within 3 months of the final decision

  • Somerset County Council (20 010 280)

    Category: Education Date: 25-Oct-2021

    Summary

    Somerset County Council failed to make provision for X, who had an Education, Health and Care Plan, when her school placement ended and when she was unable to attend before that. This caused her injustice. The Council will take the action detailed in this decision statement to recognise the injustice to X and her mother and to ensure that such failures to not happen to others in future.

    Service improvements

    Ensure the Council has a mechanism in place to track and chase up where is knows an annual review is overdue and it has not received any notification of the outcome from a school or where it is aware a review has taken place but has not received the written decision. The Council will provide us with evidence of this.Ensure that the SEN team keeps clearer and more comprehensive records and has a mechanism to track and take action where children are not receiving education to ensure that provision is put in place as promptly as possible. The Council will provide us with evidence of what it has put in place to achieve this.

  • Somerset County Council (20 008 735)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 23-Mar-2022

    Summary

    Mrs M complained on behalf of her son, Mr P, about the actions of Somerset County Council (the Council) and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust (the Trust). The complaint was about the Council’s adult care services and the Trust’s mental health and complaints services. We have upheld elements of the complaint relating to social care needs assessment, claims about Mrs M’s behaviour, and complaint handling. We have not upheld other parts of the complaint. The Council and Trust accept our recommendations. We have therefore completed our investigation.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to review its processes for assessing adult social care needs and producing care plans to check whether the faults we have identified are current systemic problems. It will produce an action plan with timescales to resolve any systemic problems the review identifies.

  • Somerset County Council (20 004 934)

    Category: Education Date: 05-Aug-2021

    Summary

    There was fault by the Council in failing to secure the special educational provision in an EHC plan. This led a child to lose out on education and placed additional strain on the family. Recommendations for an apology, financial payment and service improvements are made.

    Service improvements

    The Council will review its processes to ensure it checks when a new Education, Health and Care Plan is issued that special educational provision in Section F is in place.

  • Somerset County Council (20 003 531)

    Category: Children's care services Date: 22-Sep-2021

    Summary

    Mr and Mrs Y complain about the Council’s handling of an Initial Child Protection Conference. The Council has accepted it was at fault and taken certain action to remedy some of the injustice Mr and Mrs Y experienced. The Ombudsman finds the Council at fault for failing to fully assess the distress, uncertainty and confusion caused to Mr and Mrs Y. To remedy this injustice, the Council has agreed to apologise to Mr and Mrs Y, make a payment to them and make several service improvements.

    Service improvements

    the Council has agreed to make the following service improvements: review potentially similarly affected cases where the same Chair had chaired the Initial Child Protection Conference between January and June 2019review all relevant guidance to staff on possible Child Protection Conference outcomes to ensure guidance on how each of the three possible outcomes should be considered is harmonisedreview it policies on Child Protection Conferences and Section 47 Enquiries under the Children Act 1989 to make sure it is clear to staff when key decisions should be put in writing and/or communicated verbally to the child’s parents/guardians with full reasons for any decision madereview its complaints handling process, particularly regarding Child Protection Conferences, to ensure clear information is given to staff on assessing injustice when fault is found and awarding appropriate remedies for thisshare this decision with relevant staff.

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