Service improvements

St Helens Metropolitan Borough 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 - 4 of 4 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 (22 003 504)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 06-Jan-2023

    Summary

    The Council was at fault when the care provider acting on its behalf wrongly billed a deceased resident’s family for outstanding care fees. The Council also failed to identify during its complaints process that it was the organisation responsible for the total cost of the placement and instead passed the responsibility for some of the outstanding fees onto the resident’s family. These faults caused the family avoidable distress and inconvenience. The action the Council intends to take is sufficient to remedy this injustice. The Council has also agreed to carry out our recommended service improvements to prevent recurrence of the same faults in future.

    Service improvements

    The Council was at fault when a local adult social care provider acting on its behalf wrongly billed a deceased resident's family for outstanding care fees. The Council has agreed to demonstrate that the local adult social care provider has carried out an investigation into why the family were incorrectly billed despite receiving evidence from the family to disprove its calculations.The Council was at fault for failing to identify during its complaints process that it was the organisation responsible for the total cost of the placement and instead passed the responsibility for some of the outstanding fees onto the resident's family. The Council has agreed to show that improvements have been made to a local adult social care provider’s systems for billing residents to prevent this fault occurring in future.The Council has agreed to show that it has taken steps to improve a local adult social care provider’s approach to transparency and communication with the Council at all times, but particularly when being investigated.The Council has agreed to remind its complaints team and adult social care team that disputes over top-up fees are not only matters for the complainant and the care provider, if the Council has commissioned the care.

  • St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council (22 002 085)

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

    Summary

    Mr C says a care home, acting on behalf of the Council, failed to provide any recompense for rings it lost, failed to explain how Mrs B had sustained a head injury and failed to recognise Mrs B had a urinary tract infection. The care home, acting on behalf of the Council, failed to follow its procedures for storing valuables and for dealing with falls and failed to complete records properly. An apology, payment to Mr C, liaison with the care home and Mr C to see whether an agreement can be reached on recompense for the rings and training for care staff is satisfactory remedy.

    Service improvements

    The Council will provide evidence to the Ombudsman of the actions taken by the care home to ensure staff are aware of the procedure to follow with residents belongings and when a fall takes place.

  • St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council (22 001 418)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 28-Nov-2022

    Summary

    The complainant’s representative (Mrs X) complained about the Council’s failings when providing her son (Mr Y) with adult social care services and when charging him for care. We find the Council at fault for its failure to provide Mr Y and Mrs X as his main carer with a reviewed care and support plan and for its failure to make reasonable adjustments for Mr Y. This caused Mr Y injustice. We also find fault within a safeguarding process but this did not cause significant injustice to Mr Y. The Council agreed to apologise to Mr Y and make a payment for his distress. The Council also agreed to make some service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council will consider the increase in monitoring of care needs assessments and re-assessments as well as care and support plans being sent to service users.The Council will consider introducing more prominent recording of any reasonable adjustments required by service users in the assessment or re-assessment documents as well as care and support plans.The Council will provide evidence that this has happened.

  • St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council (21 005 590)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 25-Apr-2022

    Summary

    Mrs X and Ms Y complain about the Council’s handling following their uncle’s (Mr Z) death and its failure to inform them when his funeral was taking place. The Council was at fault for not following its own policy and government good practice in this case. This meant Mrs X and Ms Y missed Mr Z’s funeral and he opportunity to pay their last respects. The Council has agreed to apologise and make payment to Mrs X and Ms Y for the significant distress caused. The Council will also issue written guidance to relevant staff, review its Public Health Funeral policy and then publish the policy online, in line with government good practice.

    Service improvements

    Written guidance to relevant staff on importance of obtaining written confirmation that next of kin is not arranging the funeralReview existing public health funeral policy to better align with Government good practice guidanceEnsure public health funeral policy is published online to assist members of the public

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