Service improvements

Swindon Borough Council

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2027

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 11 - 16 of 16 cases with service improvements

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

  • Swindon Borough Council (22 001 043)

    Category: Children's care services Date: 09-Nov-2022

    Summary

    Mr and Mrs X complained the Council failed to provide them with appropriate information about two children they adopted in 2019 which they say contributed to the breakdown of the placement. There was no fault in how the Council investigated Mr and Mrs X’s complaints under the statutory children’s complaints procedure or the recommendations made. It agreed to provide us with evidence it has completed them. The Council significantly delayed carrying out the complaints procedure and failed to provide Mr and Mrs X with the stage 3 report which was fault. It agreed to pay them £300 to remedy the injustice that caused.

    Service improvements

    The Council investigated a complaint under the statutory children's complaints procedure about a failure to provide appropriate information about children prior to their adoption which resulted in it agreeing to a number of recommendations. The Council agreed to provide the Ombudsman with evidence it has carried out the recommendations agreed at stages 2 and 3 of the procedure. This includesreminding staff to handle data correctly;reminding staff and relevant partners to ensure prospective adoptors are aware of support mechanisms available to them and to manage expectations around the available support;reminding duty managers to keep written logs of the calls and advice given to adopters.give scrutiny to the matching and adoption process to identify any learning.

  • Swindon Borough Council (21 012 063)

    Category: Transport and highways Date: 12-May-2022

    Summary

    Mr E complained about the Council’s delays when he reported his neighbours were using his dropped kerb. We find the Council was at fault as it delayed responding to Mr E’s communication and it also delayed responding to his complaint. The Council has agreed to our recommendations to address Mr E’s injustice.

    Service improvements

    The Council will issue written reminders to staff within its streetworks department to ensure they are aware they should respond to customer’s queries without unnecessary delay. If there are going to be delays, they should keep customers updated.The Council will issue written reminders to relevant staff to ensure they are aware of the Council’s complaints procedure and the timescales for responding to complaints.

  • Swindon Borough Council (21 010 966)

    Category: Housing Date: 19-Jun-2022

    Summary

    Miss X complained about the Council’s failure to rehouse her after placing her in an unsuitable property and about her priority banding. She also complained about harassment from her neighbour. We have found the Council to be at fault because it did not offer to carry out a review of her priority banding. To remedy the injustice to Miss X, the Council has agreed to apologise, make a payment to her and review its practices. We did not find fault with the Council’s original offer of accommodation or how is dealt with her complaints about harassment.

    Service improvements

    The Council has also agreed to review its processes to ensure that it issues a formal decision with review rights in response to all priority decisions under its allocations policy.

  • Swindon Borough Council (20 011 171)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 18-Aug-2021

    Summary

    Mrs B complained about information an NHS Trust provided to the Council’s commissioned care home provider when her late father was discharged from hospital in December 2019. She complains a Surgery prescribed antibiotics but failed to send the prescription to the pharmacy. She also said the Home delayed in following up on the medication her father needed, and this contributed to his untimely death. We found the Trust at fault for poor record keeping when it dealt with the discharge, but it improved. Faults in the way the Surgery made an electronic request for medication and the Home’s failure to take follow up action caused delay in the medication being received. The Surgery and the Home also missed an opportunity to report the incident to the Council so it could consider its safeguarding procedures. The authorities have agreed to our recommendations and the Council will monitor the Home to ensure it improves the way it records discharge information and it will provide safeguarding training if necessary. The Surgery will remind its staff of the importance of reporting safeguarding concerns to the Council when dealing with incidents relating to patient safety. The Home and the Surgery will apologise to Mrs B for the missed opportunity which contributed to doubt she has about the events which occurred.

    Service improvements

    The Council will monitor the Home toensure it improves the way it records discharge information and it will providesafeguarding training if necessary.

  • Swindon Borough Council (20 000 973)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 19-Aug-2021

    Summary

    Mrs C complains about the Council’s management of her late father’s care home charges. There was delay in providing a full statement of account, and a failure to take action in respect of Mr B’s pension. The Council has agreed to the Ombudsman’s recommendation that it reimburse the £218.00 probate charges, in addition to the £262.07 it has already agreed to write off. It has also put in place measures to improve its management of client accounts.

    Service improvements

    The Council has put in place additional checks to review all debts with the officers managing cases, upon the receipt of Deputyship Orders; and will undertake regular meetings to review the debts owed by service users with the team as a whole.

  • Swindon Borough Council (19 016 113)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 24-Oct-2021

    Summary

    Mrs D complains about her father-in-law, Mr E’s discharge planning by the Council and subsequent care in a nursing home and a hospital. We found fault with some aspects of Mr E’s care and have made recommendations to the Council and Home to improve their services. We did not find fault with the Hospital.

    Service improvements

    Due to the systemic failings in Deprivation of Liberty Safeguarding assessment we recommended the Council produce an action plan to address the delays in carrying out the assessments with details about how these changes will be audited and monitored.

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