Latest news with #LGSCO
BBC News
04-08-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Northamptonshire council fined after child's Send provision delay
A council has been asked to pay a family £3,000 after a child with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) suffered delays to their care plan and missed out on specialist Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) found that West Northamptonshire Council was late issuing the young person's Education, Health and Care Plan (ECHP), causing them "avoidable distress and delay".The ombudsman said the child missed out on occupational therapy and one-to-one support activities as a Reform UK-controlled council apologised and said it had expanded its teams to meet increased demand for EHCP assessments. As reported by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the child, referred to in the report as 'Y' was also late in receiving speech and language to the analysis in the LGSCO report, the council said it believed that Y was receiving the required provision. It pointed to an annual review undertaken in July 2023 which suggested appropriate provision was being the child's school also reported difficulties in delivering support in 2023 and parental views recorded at the time did raise problems with proper Send provision not being ombudsman said there was no evidence following the 2023 annual review that the council made any enquiries or investigations at the time into whether the Send provision had been delivered or report concluded: "On the balance of probabilities, Y missed Send provision contained in her EHC Plan throughout the period June 2023 to September 2024."The LGSCO has asked the council to apologise to the family for the fault found and pay £3,000 in respect of the 16 months of missed Send council said it did not comment on individual cases, but acknowledged the complaints upheld by the said it remained "fully committed to making the necessary improvements" to ensure that provision meets the needs of children within the authority. Follow Northamptonshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
The Guardian
15-06-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
My father died in a care home and all I got was denials and excuses
The situation at The Firs care home in Nottinghamshire, which was shut down in April, is dreadful for patients, families and staff ('How did it get to this?' What happens when care in a residential home breaks down, 7 June). But the Care Quality Commission (CQC) is not the only body to blame for failings like this. It can't investigate individual complaints – this is mostly down to the local government and social care ombudsman (LGSCO), but also the parliamentary and health service ombudsman (PHSO). It depends on who funds the care; in theory the same care home could be dealing with two ombudsman staff unaware of each other. Both are equally damned on Trustpilot with overwhelmingly negative reviews. My dad died two days after he had been moved to a home for palliative care. So much went wrong on that awful day, with staff who didn't care and with no involvement with any senior staff. I complained to the manager and then the company headquarters. I received many denials and excuses, one of which was so clearly untrue that I thought I'd caught them out. I told the PHSO everything. I waited for eight months, only to have every ridiculous excuse parroted back to me as a reason for not investigating. I don't believe the LGSCO would have been any better. The care home company knew I had complained and had time to prepare for an investigation, which never came. All I did by complaining was show what it could get away with. Other homes in the same organisation have been graded as inadequate or requiring improvement, with poor staffing levels and attitudes to patients especially marked. So criticise the CQC, but don't spare either and address supplied Your article made me cry. My parents (90 and 92) have, since February, suffered deterioration in their health such that both now need full-time care. Three of the four local-authority-provided 'rehab' places have so far been utterly woeful. The home that my father is currently living in is disastrous for a person in his position. My sister and I are desperately trying to sort an alternative for him, but it takes time and every day he is there is a day too long. And as for whistleblowing, we tried that when a carer was verbally abusive to my mother. The difficulties we are having moving her because of her record of 'very difficult behaviour' are not and address supplied
BBC News
24-04-2025
- BBC News
West Northamptonshire Council failed homeless man for second time
A council has been ordered to pay £750 to a homeless man and told to make service improvements after it failed to provide him with emergency accommodation for a second Northamptonshire Council apologised for refusing the man's homelessness request and for any distress individual, referred to as Mr X, had also complained that the Conservative-controlled authority repeated failures from a previous incident in 2023, when he was forced to sleep in his car for a fortnight after he said his mother had assaulted Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) said the council had "further compounded" the stress the man was under. According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the man had again approached the authority for homelessness assistance in August 2024 after he was forced to return to the same place where he had experienced domestic told West Northamptonshire Council he had returned to sleeping in his car and had tried to take his life several response, the council recommended he contact his landlord to ask to move into his tenancy, which was due to start in September, early. It said it recognised he was temporarily homeless, but that Mr X did not meet the priority need criteria for temporary accommodation. 'Significant fault' The LGSCO report said: "The ombudsman has already found significant fault with this council for its handling of Mr X's case when he previously fled domestic abuse."It said the council "should have considered his approach as a homelessness application, not a request for advice" and "the council's actions amount to a fault".The investigator added that the council's actions and improvements promised after the 2023 incident had not addressed "the underlying issue" of failing to properly identify and assess homelessness watchdog asked the council to provide evidence that it has given its staff further training, told it to circulate the investigation and apologised to the individual for their Northamptonshire Council said it was "committed to learning from this [case]" and had "begun taking steps to implement the ombudsman's proposed actions, including further training to our housing and homelessness teams". Follow Northamptonshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
