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 - 9 of 9 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 (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 (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 (22 005 590)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 13-Mar-2023

    Summary

    Ms X complained about poor care provided to her mother, Mrs Y, whilst at two Council-commissioned care homes between March and May 2022. She says the poor care caused her and her mother distress and contributed to her mother’s death. There was fault in one care home’s record keeping and in how the Council handled Ms X’s complaint. The Council has agreed to apologise to Ms X for the frustration and uncertainty caused and act to improve its services.

    Service improvements

    The Council will review a council commissioned care home's record keeping as part of its next planned quality assurance visit, to assure itself the care home is keeping accurate and complete records for residents in their care.The Council will review its adult social care complaints handling procedures to ensure officers responding to complaints are appropriately trained to investigate complaints and provide comprehensive responses in line with its policy.

  • Sunderland City Council (22 001 205)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 22-Dec-2022

    Summary

    Mrs X complained about the care provided to her mother, Mrs Y, at a Council commissioned care home. The care provider was at fault for not having proper records of the care it gave to Mrs Y. There was also fault in the care it gave to Mrs Y before she went to hospital. This impacted Mrs Y’s dignity and comfort and caused Mrs X distress and uncertainty about the care provided. The care provider has acknowledged these concerns. The Council have agreed to provide Mrs X and Mrs Y with a financial remedy to properly recognise the injustice and take action to improve the care home’s record keeping.

    Service improvements

    The Council should satisfy itself the care provider has reminded staff of the importance of accurate record keeping to prevent any reoccurrence of the faults identified in this complaint.

  • Sunderland City Council (20 012 735)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 01-Nov-2021

    Summary

    Mrs C complained on behalf of her cousin, Ms B (who is deaf) about the actions of the Council in trying to set up a companion service to improve Ms B’s social isolation. We agreed with the Council’s conclusions that it was at fault and we also agreed with its proposals to put matters right, which include paying Ms B £500 for her distress and Mrs C £200 for her time and trouble in pursuing the complaint. The Council has also agreed to send Ms B a copy of its revised communications policy, place the policy on its website and to consider providing deaf awareness training to frontline staff.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to - send a copy of its revised’ Accessible Information and Communication’ policy to Ms B and Mrs C - place the policy on its website in an accessible place and - consider providing frontline staff with deaf awareness training

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