Service improvements

St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025

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 - 5 of 5 cases with service improvements

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

  • St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council (24 010 091)

    Category: Education Date: 30-Mar-2025

    Summary

    Mrs X complains the Council failed to meet statutory timescales when finalising her child’s education, health and care (EHC) Plan. The Council is at fault for the delay in issuing the final EHC Plan and failing to communicate with Mrs X effectively. It has agreed to provide Mrs X a financial remedy to acknowledge the delay and avoidable distress caused.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to investigate the reason for the delay in issuing the Education Health and Care (EHC) Plan for the child in this case and identify actions to implement to ensure it meets statutory timescales with regards to EHC Plans following reviews.

  • St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council (24 000 311)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 11-Aug-2024

    Summary

    Mrs X complains the Council is not giving her adult son, Mr Y, sufficient support to meet his needs. She says direct payments from the Council do not cover the cost of respite care and the Council will not allow her flexibility in how she spends the payments. She says she is struggling to care for Mr Y as he gets older and wants the Council to consider individual requests to spend the money. We have found fault in the actions of the Council for failing to keep adequate records and failing to complete an investigation as promised. The Council has offered to cover the shortfall in the respite care payments in September and complete a further review. We agree these are the most suitable practical remedies for the injustice and additionally recommend the Council apologises to Mrs X, makes service improvements, and pays her a financial remedy for the distress caused.

    Service improvements

    Write to staff to remind them of the importance of keeping accurate records.

  • St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council (23 020 586)

    Category: Education Date: 03-Jul-2024

    Summary

    Miss X complains on behalf of her son, Y, the Council failed to issue an EHC Plan within the statutory timescale. Miss X says this has resulted in Y being in an unsuitable setting and has caused both him and her family distress. We have found fault in the Councils actions for delaying in issuing the EHC Plan. The Council has agreed to issue an apology and make a financial payment and service improvements.

    Service improvements

    Provide if already in existence or produce a plan detailing what action it is taking to address the shortage of EP’s and the delays in issuing EHC Plans and take it to the relevant scrutiny committee or panel for this issue.

  • St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council (23 017 854)

    Category: Education Date: 20-Aug-2024

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council failed to arrange suitable full-time education for her child, W, after they stopped attending school, and that it took too long to find another school for W. The Council was at fault for failing to secure the special educational provision in W’s Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan for over a year. It was also at fault for delay issuing an amended version of W’s EHC Plan and for delay seeking a new school place for W. This meant W missed out on education they were entitled to, and Mrs X experienced undue frustration, upset and stress. To remedy their injustice, the Council will apologise to Mrs X, pay her £7,825 and take action to prevent similar fault in the future.

    Service improvements

    The Council will explain to staff in its education service that they can issue a final Education, Health and Care Plan naming a type of school instead of a particular school.The Council will review why the Council failed to consult with any potential schools for the complainant's child between May and December 2023 and what action it needs to take to prevent a similar fault in future. If the Council identifies actions to take, it should send the Ombudsman an action plan setting out how it will take those steps and when by.

  • St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council (23 011 396)

    Category: Education Date: 07-May-2024

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council delayed issuing a final Education, Health and Care plan for her son in reasonable time when he transferred from primary to secondary school. I have found the Council at fault. It did not issue a final plan in line with the statutory guidance, and this caused Mrs X an injustice. The Council will apologise, recognise the delay this had on Mrs X’s appeal rights and take action to prevent reoccurrence.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind all staff of the deadline for issuing EHC plans where a child is to move between key phases and of the importance of keeping families told of any delays.

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