Service improvements

Worcestershire 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 1 - 6 of 6 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 (24 020 635)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 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.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to arrange training for adult social care staff (including the financial assessment team) on the Council’s reasonable adjustment duty, using our Focus Report: ‘Equal Access: Getting it right for people with disabilities’, as a guide.

  • Worcestershire County Council (24 017 518)

    Category: Children's care services Date: 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.

    Service improvements

    • By training or other means remind relevant staff of the importance of completing the actions recommended at stage 2 and stage 3 of the statutory complaints procedure in a timely manner and within agreed timescales.• Provide the Ombudsman with evidence that the Council has completed the stage 2 recommendation “implement service improvements to ensure needs assessments are properly completed by gathering sufficient information from relevant service users and professionals. And the Council to ensure assessment reports are correctly completed and the contents explained to service users to ensure they understand the contents and how the Council’s decisions were reached”.

  • Worcestershire County Council (24 015 809)

    Category: Education Date: 18-Dec-2025

    Summary

    The Council was at fault for failing to adhere to the statutory timescales in reviewing Mr X’s child’s Education, Health and Care Plan. The Council was also at fault for failing to ensure delivery of Mr X’s child’s Education, Health and Care Plan provision. The Council agreed to apologise to Mr X and his child and provide a symbolic payment for the avoidable frustration and distress caused and the missed Education, Health and Care Plan provision.

    Service improvements

    The Council will complete staff training for how it investigates, checks and records Section F provision from a child’s Education, Health and Care Plan is in place when a new or amended plan is issued, during the annual review process and when a person raises concern with it about provision not being in placeThe Council will complete staff training for how it processes annual reviews of an Education, Health and Care Plan when there is an appeal to the Tribunal or when a child is due to transition to a stage in life which would bring into question the responsibility to continue an Education, Health and Care Plan

  • Worcestershire County Council (24 013 950)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 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.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to review how it makes best interest decisions where it has decided someone does not have capacity to understand or manage their finances. It will produce a dated action plan of any changes it decides are needed to its policies and processes. As part of the review, it will consider:how it can ensure it involves family members where appropriate, or an independent advocate if not;how it can ensure it properly records decisions to refer to a third-party financial appointee service. This includes reasons for referral to any particular organisation, and consideration of the financial implications of this for the service user; how it can ensure it properly supports service users without capacity to secure third-party appointee services, where they cannot enter into a contract themselves; andwhether it should have more formal contractual arrangements in place with third-party appointee services it directs its service users without capacity to.

  • Worcestershire County Council (24 011 770)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 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.

    Service improvements

    The Council will send a reminder to officers about the process to follow if the need for a mental capacity assessment is identified by either Council officers or care providers.The Council will find out why the reasons for the delay addressing the complaint between March 2024 and November 2024 and put in place a process to ensure the same issues do not occur again.

  • Worcestershire County Council (24 009 742)

    Category: Other Categories Date: 23-Jan-2026

    Summary

    Mrs X complained about the Council’s failure to deal with her complaint about a councillor’s breach of its code of conduct. We found the Council had avoidably delayed dealing with the complaint and put Mrs X to avoidable time and trouble seeking a response which had caused her distress. The Council had since responded to the complaint and apologised for its delay. It also agreed our recommendation to make Mrs X a symbolic payment to properly address the remaining injustice caused by its faults. The Council also agreed to complete its review of its procedure for handling complaints about councillors and to update its website to improve peoples’ access to complaint information.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to complete the review of its arrangements for handling councillor code of conduct complaints. And then update its website to show the changes and provide a contact email for the Monitoring Officer to improve peoples’ access to information and transparency about the complaints procedure.

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