Worcestershire County Council (24 012 293)

Statement Upheld Alternative provision 13-May-2025

Summary: Mrs X complained the Council failed to arrange alternative educational provision for her child (Y) after they became unwell and unable to attend school in the 2023/2024 school year. The Council was at fault for failing to consider alternative educational provision when Mrs X raised attendance problems in late April 2024. However, this did not cause an injustice as Y was not absent for 15 days or more which is a requirement for the Council to arrange alternative provision. Y also went on study leave five weeks after Mrs X raised attendance problems and any alternative education provision would not have been arranged before this period.

Worcestershire County Council (24 011 770)

Statement Upheld Domiciliary care 15-May-2025

Summary: Mr Y complained the Council failed to ensure Mr X’s care provider assigned regular drivers for his mobility car, delayed providing Mr X with medication, failed to ensure Mr X received appropriate personal care, delayed arranging a repair of Mr X’s toilet, allowed the care provider to slander him and delayed considering his complaint. There is some evidence Mr X missed out on access to the community, of missed medication, of inadequate records of bathing and of delay responding to the complaint. An apology, payment to Mr X and Mr Y, alongside procedural remedies, is satisfactory remedy.

Worcestershire County Council (24 022 315)

Statement Upheld Assessment and care plan 26-Jun-2025

Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint the Council did not provide appropriate support and information for her father’s financial assessment. This is because further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

Worcestershire County Council (24 013 950)

Statement Upheld Safeguarding 24-Jul-2025

Summary: Mr X complained about how the Council made a best interest decision for his brother, Mr Y, when it decided he did not have capacity to make decisions about his finances. The Council was at fault because it did not keep proper oversight when it referred Mr Y to a third-party financial appointee service. However, this did not cause any injustice. The Council will, however, review how it makes best interest decisions to prevent potential injustice to others who cannot manage their finances in future. The Council already apologised to Mr X for some wrong information it gave him when investigating his complaint, which is enough to remedy the injustice caused.

Worcestershire County Council (25 001 593)

Statement Upheld Special educational needs 27-Jul-2025

Summary: We will not investigate Ms M’s complaint about alternative provision for her son, B, because the Council has offered a satisfactory remedy.

Worcestershire County Council (25 001 366)

Statement Upheld Special educational needs 03-Aug-2025

Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council’s failure to provide her child with suitable education and special educational needs provision, and failure to complete an annual review. This is because the Council agreed to resolve the complaint early by providing a proportionate remedy for the injustice caused by the likely fault.

Worcestershire County Council (24 017 518)

Statement Upheld Disabled children 10-Aug-2025

Summary: Miss X complained the Council did not properly complete a needs assessment and refused to provide respite for her children, F and G. Miss X also complained the Council delayed and failed to complete all the recommendations made at stage 2 and stage 3 of the statutory complaints procedure. There was fault by the Council for its delays in completing the recommendations made at stage 2 and stage 3 of the statutory complaints procedure. This caused injustice to Miss X and the Council will take action to remedy the injustice caused.

Worcestershire County Council (24 014 179)

Statement Upheld Other 13-Aug-2025

Summary: There was a service failure in the provision of the section 117 aftercare and some fault in the way the Council decided to communicate with Mr B. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mr B, offer him a further meeting and has agreed to communicate via Mr B’s representative if Mr B agrees.

Worcestershire County Council (24 020 635)

Statement Upheld Charging 21-Sep-2025

Summary: Mrs B complained on behalf of her father, Mr C that the Council had failed to make reasonable adjustments to ensure Mr C could read and understand financial information about his care costs, despite knowing he had a visual impairment. We found fault in the Council’s actions which meant Mr C did not understand he had to pay his care costs allowing a large debt to build up over nearly two years. This caused Mr C uncertainty and distress and Mrs B distress on receiving the invoice. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mrs B and Mr C, make symbolic payments to them both and improve its procedures for the future.

Worcestershire County Council (24 021 652)

Statement Upheld Alternative provision 16-Oct-2025

Summary: Mrs C complained the Council failed to provide education for her son, who has special educational needs, following his exclusion from school. We upheld the complaint finding for more than four months the Council made either no education provision, or inadequate provision for Mrs C’s son. This loss of provision was an injustice. The Council proposed action it would take to remedy the complaint, set out at the end of this statement. We agreed this would provide a fair outcome to the complaint and so completed our investigation.