Service improvements

West Sussex County Council

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2025 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 11 - 16 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 (24 012 905)

    Category: Education Date: 04-Jun-2025

    Summary

    We found fault on Mrs Y’s complaint against the Council through a service failure. It failed to issue the final Education, Health and Care plan for her daughter, Z, within statutory timescales. The Council issued it 40 weeks late. The delay caused Mrs Y avoidable injustice as she suffered uncertainty and frustration. The agreed action remedies the injustice caused.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to produce an action plan showing how it will meet the statutory timescales for needs assessments and issuing Education, Health and Care plans.

  • West Sussex County Council (24 010 702)

    Category: Education Date: 19-Dec-2025

    Summary

    Ms Y complains that failures by the Council caused her child, D, to miss important provision and limited their chances of passing exams. Ms Y says the failures meant she had to deliver provision at home, causing further distress. When she raised concerns, the Council limited Ms Y’s contact because it said she was unreasonably persistent. We find fault in some parts of the complaint which the Council has agreed to remedy with a symbolic payment of £500 and the implementation of some service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind relevant officers of the need to issue written warning letters before imposing contact restrictions for those considered to be unreasonably persistent and/or displaying unreasonable behaviour. This is in line with the Council’s published policy.

  • West Sussex County Council (24 008 913)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 27-Nov-2025

    Summary

    Mr and Mrs X complained about the Council’s decision to reduce night time support. We found the Council to be at fault because it took too long to carry out a review of their care and support needs. This caused distress and uncertainty. To remedy this injustice, the Council agreed to apologise and make a symbolic payment to Mr and Mrs X. We did not find fault with the decision about the level of care.

    Service improvements

    By training or other means, the Council will remind relevant members of staff of the need to complete reviews within a reasonable timescale and not allow cases to drift.

  • West Sussex County Council (24 003 266)

    Category: Education Date: 28-Apr-2025

    Summary

    Mrs X complained about the Council’s handling of her daughter’s Education, Health and Care Plan in late 2022 and the lack of alternative provision since January 2023. We have found the Council was at fault for the delay in finalising Plans following reviews in October 2022 and March 2023. This caused Mrs X and S avoidable distress, uncertainty and loss of provision from section F of the Plan. The Council has already accepted some of the faults and apologised together with our further recommendations.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to share this decision with relevant staff to ensure that the Council keeps relevant contemporaneous notes about any decision it makes about its section 19 duty and remind relevant staff of the importance of issuing EHC Plans within the statutory timeframes following an annual review.

  • West Sussex County Council (24 002 365)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 06-Nov-2025

    Summary

    The Council was at fault for failing to properly consider Mrs X’s need for respite as a carer and for not providing her with regular respite it accepted she needs. The Council will apologise and make a symbolic payment to Mrs X to recognise the avoidable distress caused by its fault. It will also take steps to prevent recurrence of the same fault.

    Service improvements

    The Council will set out the steps it has taken to ensure, where carer respite needs are identified in carers’ assessments, it gives proper consideration of how those needs should be met.

  • West Sussex County Council (24 001 750)

    Category: Education Date: 22-Jun-2025

    Summary

    Ms X complains about issues concerning her daughter Y’s education, including delays in the EHCP process, failure to provide suitable full-time education, and poor communication. We have concluded our investigation with a finding of fault. The Council delayed in finalising Y’s EHCP and failed to ensure suitable education was in place between November 2022 and May 2023. The Council has agreed to our recommendations.

    Service improvements

    Remind relevant staff of the need to act promptly in identifying and arranging interim education when a child cannot attend school;Review its record-keeping and communication practice in EOTAS and alternative provision cases to ensure families are kept appropriately updated.

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