Service improvements

Sunderland City Council

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2026

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 13 cases with service improvements

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

  • Sunderland City Council (25 004 743)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 28-Jan-2026

    Summary

    Mr X complains on behalf of his late uncle, Mr Y, about his care charges, the actions of his social worker and delays in moving him out of a care home. Mr X also says the Council dismissed his earlier attempts to complain. He says these matters caused financial difficulty for Mr Y and says this contributed to wards his heart attack. We have found fault in the Councils actions for the delay in completing a Mental Capacity Assessment. The Council has agreed to issue Mr X with an apology and pay a financial remedy.

    Service improvements

    Review its procedures to ensure the delays experienced by Mr Y’s family in completing the Mental Capacity Assessment do not recur and advise the Ombudsman of the action taken to improve its practice.

  • Sunderland City Council (24 014 625)

    Category: Education Date: 27-Jul-2025

    Summary

    Mrs X complained that the Council failed to provide a suitable education and support for her grandchild’s (Y) special educational needs. We found the Council to be at fault because it failed to provide alternative education whilst a school place was found and took too long to issue a revised Education Health and Care Plan. This caused distress and affected the welfare of Mrs X and Y. To remedy this injustice, the Council agreed to make a payment to Mrs X and take action to improve its service.

    Service improvements

    The Council will provide the Ombudsman with a summary report of the action it has taken, or intends to take, to ensure alternative support is provided when a placement breaks down.

  • Sunderland City Council (23 013 021)

    Category: Education Date: 22-Sep-2024

    Summary

    Mr X complained on behalf of his daughter, Mrs Y. He complains about the delays in the education, health and care plan process, poor communication and lack of support. We find the Council was at fault for delays in the process and poor communication. This caused significant distress to Mrs Y and Mr X spent unnecessary time and trouble contacting the Council. The Council has agreed to make several recommendations to address this injustice caused by fault.

    Service improvements

    The Council should issue written reminders to relevant staff to ensure they are aware of:•the timescales set out in the Council’s complaints policy; and •the guidance which states councils must notify the child’s parent of its decision to maintain, amend or discontinue the EHC Plan within four weeks of the review meeting.

  • Sunderland City Council (23 012 499)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 06-Jun-2024

    Summary

    Mrs X complained about the quality of care the Council’s commissioned care provider, the mews care home provided to her late aunt. We find the Council was at fault. This caused significant distress to Mrs X and her family. The Council has agreed to make several recommendations to address this injustice caused by fault.

    Service improvements

    As part of its commissioning role the Council should ensure the Care Provider has reminded staff and if appropriate provided training about:the importance of where relevant risk assessing residents before changing care plans; and appropriate record keeping.

  • Sunderland City Council (23 010 640)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 26-Sep-2024

    Summary

    Ms C complained about the Council’s handling of her safeguarding concerns about her parent’s care home, and the support provided by its Adult Social care team. We found no fault in Council’s safeguarding process. The Council accepted it had failed to ensure a social worker was allocated to their cases and appropriate notes were not kept, which caused Ms C distress and uncertainty. We also found a significant delay in its complaint’s response. The Council will apologise and make payment to acknowledge the injustice Ms C experienced.

    Service improvements

    The Council will share with the Ombudsman the step it has taken as a result of its safeguarding and complaint investigation to ensure its Adult Social Care team: 1.reallocates social workers to cases in circumstances where a staff member is away or absent;2.accurately records case notes following calls, meetings or communications with individuals or those acting on their behalf; and 3.an update on its proposed case audits to ensure cases are appropriately allocated, notes are kept, and cases have been progressed.

  • Sunderland City Council (23 001 867)

    Category: Children's care services Date: 18-Dec-2023

    Summary

    Miss X complains the Council did not safeguard Child Y, and for excluded her from the care process for Child Y. Miss X says this meant Child Y was unsafe at their residential placement, and that she was unaware of what was happening to them. We find fault with the Council for its complaint handling. We do not find fault with the Council for the other parts of the complaint. The Council has agreed to make an apology to Miss X for its complaint handling and review the mistakes that it made during the complaints process.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to carry out the stage three recommendation which said “discuss the concerns raised by the review panel about the reports provided by the Independent Officer and Independent Person”.

  • Sunderland City Council (22 018 067)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 15-Jan-2024

    Summary

    Four Seasons Health Care and Sunderland City Council missed an opportunity to consider further support to reduce the risk of Mr Y falling. Four Seasons’ record keeping was not in line with the relevant guidance. It should also have considered Mr Y’s welfare when residents wandered into his room. Those faults caused Mrs X an injustice which the organisations have agreed to remedy.

    Service improvements

    The Council should ensure relevant staff are aware of their responsibilities when considering requests for increased support for service users.

  • Sunderland City Council (22 016 100)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 27-Jul-2023

    Summary

    Care provided to Mr X at a residential care home, on behalf of the Council, was below an acceptable standard. A safeguarding investigation completed by the Council into complaints raised about the care was insufficient.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to consider training and guidance for staff on completing safeguarding investigations and to show how it has ensured the recommendations it made to the care home following the safeguarding investigation have been implemented.

  • Sunderland City Council (22 014 725)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 03-Aug-2023

    Summary

    There was a seven-month delay in completing a financial assessment for care home charges and inadequate advice about council funding which was fault causing Ms X avoidable distress. The Council has already offered £200 payment to recognise the distress and this is an appropriate remedy. To minimise the chance of recurrence, the Council will remind officers in the adult social care team to refer cases to the finance team when the NHS has withdrawn continuing healthcare funding.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind adult social care staff to refer customers to the finance team after they have attended a continuing healthcare meeting resulting in the NHS withdrawing funding.

  • Sunderland City Council (22 012 913)

    Category: Education Date: 15-Jun-2023

    Summary

    Ms X complains the Council failed to provide suitable education for her son Y when he could not attend school. The Council is at fault as there is no evidence it satisfied itself that alternative education provision made for Y was meeting his needs. It also delayed in issuing Y’s final and amended Education, Health and Care plans. The Council has offered a payment of £500 for the distress and disadvantage caused by the delays in issuing Y’s final Education, Health and Care plan which is an appropriate remedy. It has agreed to apologise to Ms X and Y for the distress caused by the failure to check if the alternative provision met Y’s needs and the delay in issuing his amended Education, Health and Care plan and make a payment of £800 to Ms X.

    Service improvements

    Provide evidence to the Ombudsman of the action taken to improve the monitoring of home tuition and alternative placements to ensure they are meeting children’s needs.

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