Service improvements

West Sussex County Council

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024

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 16 cases with service improvements

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Downloads the current filtered list of service improvement decisions for West Sussex County Council as a CSV file.

  • West Sussex County Council (23 011 004)

    Category: Education Date: 08-Mar-2024

    Summary

    Miss X complained about significant delays in the education, health and care plan process for her son. She also complained about the Council’s communication and said it refused to make reasonable adjustments. We find the Council was at fault for poor communication and significant delays in the process. This caused significant distress to Miss X and her son went without specialist provision. To address this injustice caused by fault, the Council has agreed to several recommendations.

    Service improvements

    The Council should remind relevant officers of the importance of providing clear communication and responding in a timely manner.

  • West Sussex County Council (23 007 198)

    Category: Transport and highways Date: 12-Jan-2024

    Summary

    Mr C complained about the Council’s decision to refuse his application for a vehicle crossover. We have found fault by the Council in its communication with Mr C but consider the agreed action of an apology, reconsideration of his appeal and guidance to relevant staff provides a suitable remedy.

    Service improvements

    The Council will provide guidance to relevant staff on the drafting of dropped kerb decision and appeal decision letters in relation to dropped kerb applications to ensure they are accurate and provide contemporaneous evidence the key information and any appeal grounds have been properly considered.

  • West Sussex County Council (23 007 148)

    Category: Education Date: 26-Feb-2024

    Summary

    Mr X complained the Council failed to carry out an Education, Health and Care needs assessment for his child Y and failed to provide Y with any suitable education in the meantime. The Council was at fault for failing to decide whether to issue an EHC plan within the statutory timescales, caused by a delay in obtaining Educational Psychologist advice, and for not properly considering its duty to provide alternative education provision. The Council has agreed to apologise and pay Mr X £1800 to recognise the frustration and uncertainty the delays caused him and to acknowledge Y’s missed education provision, to make an ongoing payment of £100 per month until it issues Y’s final EHC plan, and to issue staff guidance.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to provide guidance to staff on how to properly consider and record whether to provide alternative provision under its section 19 duty under the Education Act 1996 to children of compulsory age who cannot attend school because of exclusion, medical reasons or otherwise, even when a child remains on a school roll.The Council has agreed to ensure it has a robust process in place to regularly review the situation when it is aware of children out of school and records the actions arising from this review.

  • West Sussex County Council (23 005 741)

    Category: Education Date: 28-Mar-2024

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council failed to provide her child with alternative education when she was unable to attend school due to ill health. The Council was at fault for failing to consider its duty under Section 19 of the Education Act 1996 from April 2022 to February 2023. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mrs X and pay her £3250 to acknowledge the frustration, uncertainty and the loss of provision.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to review its alternative provision process and provide the Ombudsman with evidence that it complies with Section 19 of the Education Act 1996.

  • West Sussex County Council (23 004 886)

    Category: Education Date: 14-Dec-2023

    Summary

    Ms X who is an advocate, complains on behalf of Mr and Mrs Z and their daughter. She said the council have failed to respond to their communication in a timely manner; offered to reimburse speech and language therapy but failed to make the payment; initially declined to continue to provide school transport and failed to respond to a request to escalate their complaint. We find the Council was at fault for lack of communication, failing to reimburse the payment and failing to respond to their request. This caused Mr and Mrs Z significant distress. The Council has agreed to several recommendations to address the injustice caused by fault.

    Service improvements

    Through training or other means, ensure the relevant officers are aware that all issues raised in a complaint are appropriately addressed.Remind relevant officers of the importance of providing clear communication and responding in a timely manner.Provide details of the steps the Council has already taken to reduce its stage two backlog.

  • West Sussex County Council (23 004 792)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 31-Jan-2024

    Summary

    Mr X complained the Council failed to ensure his late mother, Mrs Y, had sufficient personal budget to fund her care costs, delayed reassessing her needs and failed to properly consider his request for disability related expenditure in her financial assessment. The Council was at fault for not clearly setting out Mrs Y’s personal budget in her support plan, for significant delay in reviewing her care needs and for failing to properly consider Mr X’s request for disability related expenditure. This caused Mr X frustration and uncertainty and meant Mrs Y and the family had to cover some of the care costs for longer than they should have. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mr X, backdate the revised personal budget to January 2023, review the disability related expenditure and provide guidance to staff.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to provide guidance/training to relevant staff on ensuring support plans clearly set out how the personal budget will meet an individual’s needs.

  • West Sussex County Council (23 004 405)

    Category: Children's care services Date: 10-Oct-2023

    Summary

    Ms X complained the Council has refused to investigate her complaints about how it dealt with her when her children were on a child protection plan. We find the Council at fault for failing to consider its discretion when deciding the complaint was out of time. The Council has agreed to apologise to Ms X, review its decision and act to prevent reoccurrence.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind complaint handling staff of the importance of considering discretion if they conclude a complaint is outside time limits.

  • West Sussex County Council (23 002 908)

    Category: Education Date: 23-Feb-2024

    Summary

    Ms C complains the Council did not review or update her son’s Education, Health and Care Plan as it should have. It delayed putting any alternative education in place and finding a new school after D stopped attending his previous school. Its communications were poor. The Ombudsman upholds the complaint and the Council has agreed to our recommendations.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind relevant staff that it is the Council’s duty to ensure the specified special educational provision in an Education, Health and Care Plan is being provided. And they should investigate where information is provided that leads to a question about whether the provision was in place.The Council will remind relevant staff of the Council’s duties to advise parents of the outcomes of Education, Health and Care Plan annual reviews.

  • West Sussex County Council (23 002 393)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 15-Nov-2023

    Summary

    Mr X complains that the Council placed him in an unsuitable care placement and delayed in finding an alternative placement or housing. Mr X also complains the Council failed to protect his property. We consider the Council is not at fault in placing Mr X at the care placement. But the delay in finding another placement for Mr X is service failure and fault. The Council is also at fault for failing to consider its duty to protect Mr X’s property. The faults have caused distress to Mr X which the Council has agreed to remedy by apologising to him and making a total payment of £1300. The Council will also draw up an action plan to find alternative accommodation for Mr X.

    Service improvements

    Review what support it provides people who are supported by adult social care to find alternative care placements or housing to ensure they are sufficiently supported in finding placements.By training or other means, ensure social workers and other relevant staff are aware of the Council’s duty under section 47 of the Care Act 2014 to take reasonable action to protect property.

  • West Sussex County Council (23 002 329)

    Category: Children's care services Date: 07-Nov-2023

    Summary

    Mr and Mrs X complained about the Council’s investigation under the statutory children’s complaints procedure around its involvement which their daughter, F’s care. The stage 3 review panel was not carried out in line with statutory guidance, which was fault. However, this did not cause Mr and Mrs X an injustice and there is no worthwhile outcome in holding a fresh panel. The Council agreed to take action to prevent recurrence of the fault.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to review how it appoints and trains its stage 3 panel chairpersons and panel members as part of the children's statutory complaints procedure. It should ensure that all stage 3 chairpersons have sufficient knowledge and experience to conduct stage 3 panels in line with the statutory guidance. It should also ensure it has appropriate quality monitoring processes in place to ensure stage 3 panels are held in line with the statutory guidance going forward.

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