Service improvements

Worcestershire 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 - 9 of 9 cases with service improvements

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

  • Worcestershire County Council (23 008 082)

    Category: Education Date: 05-Dec-2023

    Summary

    Miss X complained the Council failed to amend her son, Y’s Education, Health and Care plan, to provide an appropriate school placement, and to deliver the content of his plan since March 2022. There was fault in the Council’s actions. The Council agreed to pay Miss X £11,300 to recognise the four and a half terms of education and specialist provision Y has missed and to remedy the frustration and distress caused to her and Y.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind relevant staff that it must issue a final amended Education, Health and Care plan within eight weeks of a review, in line with the statutory guidance.The Council will review how it consults schools where a child needs a change of placement to ensure it makes sufficient and timely consultations. The Council will produce an action plan with timescales for any improvements it identifies.The Council will present the Ombudmsan's investigation that found it had failed to provide education and specialist provision to a child, and its complaints policy not to provide a financial payment to remedy lost education or provision, at a relevant scrutiny committee meeting for discussion.

  • Worcestershire County Council (23 006 836)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 30-Jan-2024

    Summary

    Mr X complained, on behalf of his mother, Mrs Y, about how the Council communicated changes to how her care would be funded. There was fault in how the Council failed to properly tell Mr X about changes to the funding arrangements for Mrs Y’s care. This resulted in Mrs Y paying more for care than she would have done. The Council agreed to apologise and pay for some of Mrs Y’s outstanding care charges. It also agreed to remind its staff about the importance of good communication and case recording.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to remind its social care staff of the importance of confirming important changes in care funding in writing, where possible, in good time before the changes are due to take effect.The Council agreed to remind its social care staff of the importance of making sufficiently detailed records of telephone conversations where important information, such as changes to care funding, are discussed.

  • Worcestershire County Council (23 006 306)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 05-Mar-2024

    Summary

    Ms B complained that the Council was seeking to recover contributions towards the cost of her late mother’s (Mrs C’s) care costs, which Ms B believes she does not owe. She also complained the Council had failed to explain why the balance is outstanding and why it had discounted evidence provided by Ms B. We found fault with the actions of the Council. The Council has agreed to apologise to Ms B, confirm the money is not owed, pay her £250 and improve its complaint-handling procedures.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to review its complaints procedure to ensure that when a complainant has provided evidence to support their complaint, the Council properly considers that evidence in conjunction with its own records. Furthermore if it intends to discount the complainant’s evidence it should provide full reasons for that decision with reference to its own records where appropriate.

  • Worcestershire County Council (23 003 935)

    Category: Education Date: 28-Feb-2024

    Summary

    Ms X complained the Council took her son, Z, off roll at his school despite failing to arrange any alternative provision for him. Ms X also said the Council’s communication with her was poor. The Council was at fault. This fault caused Ms X and Z a period of distress and significant uncertainty regarding whether Z could have had a better educational experience than he did between July 2022 and May 2023. In recognition of the injustice caused, the Council has agreed to apologise, pay Ms X and Z £600 and carry out service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to remind its Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) staff that they must send their proposed changes to Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans for comments within 4 weeks of the annual review meeting.The Council has agreed to remind its SEND staff that EHC plans should be finalised within 12 weeks of annual review meetings.The Council has agreed to remind its SEND staff of the importance of carrying out the actions it says it will take following annual reviews.The Council has agreed to remind its SEND staff that where parents need advice regarding processes that are new to them such as personal budgets and Education Otherwise Than At School (EOTAS), this advice should be provided to them.

  • Worcestershire County Council (23 001 973)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 02-Oct-2023

    Summary

    Mr B complained about the Council’s delay in completing his father’s a financial assessment and an assessment of his father’s needs for care and support. We have found fault and the Council has agreed to apologise, pay £150 and remind finance officer to fully consider the evidence.

    Service improvements

    Remind finance officers to fully consider the evidence they have received when carrying out the assessment.

  • Worcestershire County Council (22 018 099)

    Category: Education Date: 28-Nov-2023

    Summary

    There was a five month delay in the Council completing an assessment for an Education, Health and Care plan, which in turn delayed when a child could start at their specialist school. There was also a failure to provide suitable fulltime alternative education promptly, at the right level, or to carry out reviews to increase the education on offer. This caused loss of education as well as distress, frustration, inconvenience, time and trouble. The Council will apologise and make symbolic payments to the child and parent carer.

    Service improvements

    The Council will consider recent statutory guidance on school attendance and absence due to mental health reasons and consider if changes to its guidance, training or approach are required to reflect this.

  • Worcestershire County Council (22 017 884)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 06-Nov-2023

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council failed to make Mrs Y aware she had to contribute towards the cost of her care and support. She also complained the Council failed to update Mrs Y’s address, meaning she did not receive important correspondence. We found the Council gave Mrs Y correct information about charging at the outset and made her aware she may have to contribute to the cost of her care and support. However, the Council failed to correctly update Mrs Y’s address and failed to inform her it had started to charge her.

    Service improvements

    The Council will use this complaint as learning for officers to ensure they correctly update residents' address records and that this is reflected across Council departments.

  • Worcestershire County Council (22 015 567)

    Category: Education Date: 09-Nov-2023

    Summary

    Mrs X complained about the Council’s failure to provide her son with suitable education after his exclusion from school in April 2022. We have found fault because the Council failed to deliver suitable education. Mrs X has suffered avoidable frustration and distress in getting the issues resolved and her son missed out on education he should have received. To remedy the injustice caused by the fault, the Council has agreed to apologise, make a payment to Mrs X and provide guidance to relevant officers.

    Service improvements

    The Council will share the Ombudsman’s guidance on the principles of good administrative practice with Special Educational Needs team officers. This will remind them of the need for accurate and timely record keeping as a future evidence base and to communicate in a timely and effective manner with those concerned.The Council will remind officers dealing with Special Educaiotnal Needs complaints of the need to handle these in line with the Council’s published policy and timescales and share the Ombudsman’s guidance on effective complaint handling for local authorities with them. This will help to ensure complaints are dealt with in a timely, accurate and effective manner.

  • Worcestershire County Council (22 009 826)

    Category: Children's care services Date: 02-Apr-2023

    Summary

    Mrs B complained about the actions of the Council in failing to provide social care support for her two children, C and D since late 2018, delay in carrying out a carer’s assessment and delay in dealing with her complaint about the matter. We found the Council delayed in finding suitable support for C at different points amounting to approximately 18 months in total. The Council has agreed to pay Mrs B £1000 and review its commissioning service.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to review its commissioning service for social care support to children with SEN to see if any action can be taken to improve the availability of support workers.

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