Service improvements

Tameside 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 - 9 of 9 cases with service improvements

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

  • Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council (24 011 622)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 11-Feb-2025

    Summary

    Mr X complained about the Council’s delay in assessing Mr Y’s adult social care needs and a delay in arranging funding after Mr Y’s capital fell below the limit. This caused an injustice to Mr X who was put to avoidable time and trouble pursuing the Council and avoidable stress as the care home was pursuing him for outstanding costs in a period the Council should have been assisting financially. We asked the Council to remedy the injustice and it agreed to apologise, make a payment to Mr X, and by sharing the learning with relevant staff.

    Service improvements

    The Council will share the learning from this complaint with relevant staff, including how to decide the date funding for adult social care should start and the importance of resolving challenges to its decisions without delay.

  • Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council (24 002 863)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 28-Mar-2025

    Summary

    Miss B complains about the care provided to her grandmother at a care home. She says there was poor hygiene, there were inaccurate records, her grandmother’s nutritional needs were not met and the Home did not fully respond to her complaint. We have found that there was poor record keeping in certain areas, there was an incident of poor hygiene in the room and the Home did not address all the complaints. The Council has agreed to apologise, pay a small financial remedy and carry out a service improvement.

    Service improvements

    Ask the Home to remind staff of the importance of good record keeping.

  • Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council (24 001 193)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 20-Feb-2025

    Summary

    Mrs X complained about the care provided to her late husband, Mr Y, at the Council commissioned care home. There was fault in the care home’s failure to ensure Mr Y’s medication was reviewed when he struggled with swallowing. It has already apologised for the uncertainty this caused. It also failed to ensure it kept all Mr Y’s records. The Council has agreed to ensure the care home has taken action to prevent a recurrence of these faults. There was no fault in the way the Council identified the placement or charged Mr Y for his care.

    Service improvements

    Averill House Care Home, a Council commissioned care home, could not provide copies of the records of when professionals visited the care home. The Council has agreed to satisfy itself the Care Provider has adequate systems in place to ensure it maintains individual’s case records appropriately.The Council commissioned Care home, Averill House Care Home, failed to seek support early enough when a resident struggled with swallowing. The Council has agreed to provide the Ombudsman with evidence of the lessons learned exercise carried out by the Care Home team regarding the importance of reviewing medicines when a person is experiencing a decline in physical health.

  • Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council (23 021 095)

    Category: Education Date: 15-Aug-2024

    Summary

    Miss X complained about the Council’s delay completing her child, Y’s Education, Health and Care needs assessment. We find fault, causing injustice to Y and avoidable distress and uncertainty to Miss X. The Council has agreed to apologise and make a payment to Miss X.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to brief all staff working on EHC needs assessments of our expectations for remedying complaints and good administrative practice in line with our Guidance on Remedies. Key principles include:1.we expect the Council to let parents and children / young people know if it is not going to be able to meet the statutory timescales;2.we expect the Council to consider offering a symbolic payment if it receives a complaint from a parent about delay and this has resulted in a significant injustice to their child; this will be most apparent in cases where a child’s provision will have been impacted by a delay – for example, following amendment of an EHC plan or where a parent has gone on to successfully appeal the Council’s decision following an annual review.

  • Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council (23 019 851)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 02-Dec-2024

    Summary

    Ms X complains the Council failed to support her properly after she asked for help in December 2023, and was only just setting up her direct payments when she contacted us in March 2024. The Council took far too long to set up Ms X’s direct payments. It needs to apologise and pay financial redress. It also needs to improve its working practices.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to identify the action it is going to take to ensure urgent cases are treated as urgent throughout the process, and not just at the start.

  • Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council (23 019 237)

    Category: Children's care services Date: 15-Jul-2024

    Summary

    Mrs M complains the Council has not provided overnight respite care for her children since August 2022. We uphold Mrs M’s complaint. The Council has agreed to make a symbolic payment to acknowledge the impact on Mrs M and her family.

    Service improvements

    I recommended the Council presents a copy of myfinal decision to the next meeting of the Children’s Services Scrutiny Panel.

  • Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council (23 018 886)

    Category: Education Date: 29-Nov-2024

    Summary

    Miss X complained the Council failed to secure suitable alternative education provision for her child, Y, for around 12 months. We have found the Council at fault for failing to consider its section 19 duty at the correct time and for failing to secure suitable education provision. We have also found the Council at fault for its communication and complaint handling. We have made recommendations to remedy the injustice this caused. We have found the Council at fault for procedural delays when completing an annual review of Y’s EHC Plan. However, this fault did not cause an injustice. We recommend the Council act to improve its services.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to remind officers of its responsibilities to secure suitable alternative education provision, under section 19 of the Education Act 1996. It will also share a copy of the Ombudsman's focus report Out of school, out of sight? with the reminder.The Council has agreed to remind officers of the statutory timescales for completing annual reviews of Education, Health and Care Plans, including the need to confirm the Council's decision in writing and provide appropriate appeal rights.

  • Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council (23 017 396)

    Category: Education Date: 13-Mar-2025

    Summary

    Ms X complains the Council failed to provide her with an education since June 2022. Ms X also complains the Council failed to review her EHCP. We have concluded our investigation with a finding of fault. The Council failed to ensure Ms X received a suitable education and failed to deliver the provision in line with her Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan between June 2023 and July 2024. We also found the Council failed to properly consider its Section 19 duty from June 2023, and failed to adhere to statutory timescales when carrying out an annual review. The Council has accepted our recommendations.

    Service improvements

    Review its process to ensure that reallocated cases are not impacted by delays in annual reviews. The Council should provide us with the outcome of its review.

  • Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council (23 013 311)

    Category: Education Date: 19-May-2024

    Summary

    Mrs X complained about how the Council handled her application for home to school transport support for her son, Y, in 2023. Mrs X also complained the Council withheld information about Y’s entitlement in September 2022 and would not backdate the transport allowance it later agreed to in September 2022. The Council failed to tell Mrs X about the home to school transport support in 2022, and failed to properly consider and respond to her application for support in 2023. The Council will apologise for the injustice this caused and backdate the support to September 2022.

    Service improvements

    The Council will review how it currently promotes school transport entitlements to schools and parents, identify any areas for improvement and make a timebound action plan to implement the improvements it identifies.The Council will remind all special educational needs case officers to inform parents and carers about home to school transport support when an Education, Health and Care Plan is being finalised, and to record that the information has been shared.The Council will provide training for all staff in the transport team, including senior managers, covering the legislation and statutory guidance for considering eligibility for mandatory home to school transport support, before discretionary support, and in setting out its decision on applications and appeal response in line with the statutory guidance.The Council will share the learning from this investigation into how the Council considers school transport support application with the Council officers involved in this case.

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