Southend-on-Sea City Council (22 017 838)

Statement Upheld Allocations 27-Jun-2024

Summary: Miss X complained the Council failed to properly consider her circumstances and supporting evidence when assessing her housing priority. She also said the Council restricted her housing options. We have not found the Council at fault for how it considered Miss X’s housing circumstances and supporting evidence. We have found the Council at fault for a delay in completing its review of Miss X’s housing priority. We have found the Council at fault for errors in its allocations system, which led to Miss X being wrongly restricted from bidding on properties that met her housing needs. We have also found the Council at fault for its communication about this issue. We have made recommendations for the Council to remedy the injustice caused and to improve its services.

Southend-on-Sea City Council (23 006 554)

Statement Upheld Special educational needs 17-Jul-2024

Summary: Ms X complained the Council failed to ensure her son (B) received an education when he was unable to attend school. She also complained the Council delayed issuing B’s final Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plans, delayed obtaining relevant assessments, and did not respond to her complaints. We have found the Council failed to properly consider its Section 19 duty at key points in the 2021/22 academic year. We have also found the Council failed to fulfil its Section 19 duty in the 2022/23 academic year. These faults caused a loss of education provision and support for B. We have also found the Council at fault for failing to issue B’s EHC Plans within statutory timescales and for failing to respond to Ms X’s complaint. We have made recommendations to remedy the injustice this caused. We have also recommended the Council act to improve its services.

Southend-on-Sea City Council (23 004 839)

Statement Upheld Special educational needs 19-Aug-2024

Summary: Mrs X complains there was delay in issuing her son’s revised Education Health and Care Plan. We found there was significant delay and insufficient oversight of the process. There was also a failure to ensure her son received an education for a period of time and the Council failed to properly respond to the complaint. The Council explained it had started improvement work to restore its service level for children with Special Education Needs. We recommended payments to Mrs X to recognise the loss of education to Y and the distress caused.

Southend-on-Sea City Council (23 018 379)

Statement Upheld Fostering 29-Sep-2024

Summary: Mrs Y complains about the Council’s decision to approve her as a connected foster carer. As a result of that decision, Mrs Y says she has experienced financial loss because the Council has not paid the relevant fostering fees. We have not investigated the whole complaint because the Council’s initial approval happened in 2014 and Mrs Y could have complained sooner. We find fault in some of the more recent matters complained about and the Council has agreed to complete the remedial actions set out at the end of this statement.

Southend-on-Sea City Council (24 000 158)

Statement Upheld Special educational needs 26-Nov-2024

Summary: Mr X complains that the Council delayed in issuing a final Education, Health and Care Plan for his child Z. The Council was at fault as there was a delay in receiving an Educational Psychologist’s report and delay in issuing Z’s final Education, Health and Care Plan. The delays caused distress and frustration to Mr X and his family and Z missed specific special educational needs provision for a period of 17 weeks. The Council also failed to discuss a personal budget with Mr X. The Council has agreed to remedy the injustice by apologising to Mr X and making a symbolic payment of £1300 to acknowledge the distress caused to him and his family and to acknowledge Z’s missed special educational provision.

Southend-on-Sea City Council (23 008 265)

Statement Upheld Residential care 31-Jan-2025

Summary: Mrs X complained about the care provided to her mother, Mrs Y, by a Council-funded care home. These concerns were investigated by the Council during two safeguarding enquiries. We found the Council took too long to complete the first enquiry, leaving Mrs Y exposed to risk for longer than necessary. Many of Mrs X’s concerns were substantiated by both enquiries, and so we found fault with the Council for delivering poor care. We also criticised the Council’s complaint handling. We made recommendations to address the faults we found.

Southend-on-Sea City Council (23 004 755)

Report Upheld Disabled children 25-Feb-2025

Summary: Mrs X complained that an assessment of her son’s needs inappropriately depicted her wishes and feelings as negative and social workers did not communicate or engage with her appropriately. Mrs X also complained that the Council failed to carry out a proper parent carer’s needs assessment. We found there was no failure to engage and communicate with Mrs X and the statements made in the assessment amounted to professional judgements which we would not criticise. However, we found there was a failure to carry out a proper parent carer’s needs assessment. This was fault. The fault was significant and justified a public report because this was repeated fault which was not put right after a previous investigation we conducted found the same fault and recommended action to put it right. We also found that the Council failed to use the correct complaint process and its response to the complaint was significantly delayed. The failings in the assessment process and complaint handling meant a significant delay in assessing Mrs X to establish what support she may need and the matter has led to frustration and distress.

Southend-on-Sea City Council (24 006 348)

Statement Upheld Parking and other penalties 25-Feb-2025

Summary: Mr X complained about the way the Council dealt with his representations about five penalty charge notices (PCN’s) and the subsequent action the Council took to recover the debt. He complained the Council failed to take account of his personal circumstances and vulnerability when making its decisions. We found the Council and enforcement agents’ failure to properly explore Mr X’s claimed vulnerability before proceeding with enforcement was fault. This caused Mr X unnecessary distress. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mr X, make a payment and take action to improve its service.

Southend-on-Sea City Council (24 002 812)

Statement Upheld Other 21-Mar-2025

Summary: Ms X, on behalf of Mr Y, complained the Council failed to reimburse monies stolen from his bank account by a carer. Mr Y is elderly and lives on a limited income and so has missed out on enjoying his money. The Council, now aware Ms X is unable to accept the offer of repayment by the care provider, has agreed to repay the amount to Mr Y. I consider this, along with the payment of interest for the time Mr Y has been without the money, amounts to a suitable remedy.

Southend-on-Sea City Council (24 007 529)

Statement Upheld Other 25-Mar-2025

Summary: Miss X complained the Council failed to take action to protect her child. She says this meant her and her child missed intervention and support. We find fault with the Council for failing to identify suitable remedies for Miss X during the statutory complaints process. The Council has agreed to pay a financial remedy to Miss X for distress.