Bath and North East Somerset Council (22 017 440)

Statement Upheld Residential care 16-May-2024

Summary: We uphold Miss Y’s complaint about her father’s hospital discharge and care. We found fault with the way Mr X was discharged from hospital, the care he received in a care home and some aspects of his hospital inpatient care. As a result, Mr X did not receive the care he was entitled to. Miss Y has also experienced distress and uncertainty. The Council and the Trust have agreed to apologise to Miss Y, and the Council has agreed to make systemic improvements and pay a financial remedy.

Bath and North East Somerset Council (23 014 363)

Statement Upheld Alternative provision 28-May-2024

Summary: The Council failed to ensure that Ms X’s daughter received the educational provision set out in her Education Health and Care Plan, or consider whether it had a duty to make alternative provision when she was unable to attend school. It has not issued a new Plan following an emergency review, did not properly consider her request for a personal budget, and did not communicate with Ms X properly. The Council’s shortcomings caused Ms X and her daughter distress, frustration, and uncertainty. It has caused Ms X’s daughter to miss out on educational provision.

Bath and North East Somerset Council (23 006 727)

Statement Upheld Alternative provision 30-May-2024

Summary: Miss B says the Council failed to ensure her daughter received education from 2022 onwards. The Council delayed issuing an education, health and care plan following a needs assessment and delayed issuing a revised plan following a review. That means Miss B’s daughter missed out on education for half a term. A payment to Miss B, reminder to officers and setting up a process to track annual review actions is satisfactory remedy.

Bath and North East Somerset Council (23 018 920)

Statement Upheld Alternative provision 29-Sep-2024

Summary: Miss Y complains about delays in arranging alternative provision for her child when they stopped attending school in 2022. Miss Y also complains about delays in the Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan process. We have not investigated the complaint about alternative provision because the matters complained about happened more than one year ago and there is no good reason for us to exercise discretion. In our view there is fault in the second part of Miss Y’s complaint because the Council took too long to issue her child’s EHC plan. The Council has agreed to remedy the injustice caused by fault with the actions listed at the end of this statement.

Bath and North East Somerset Council (24 002 922)

Statement Upheld Charging 25-Nov-2024

Summary: Mrs B’s complaint followed a meeting she attended with the Council in August 2023 when it assessed her mother’s care needs. We upheld her complaint, finding neither she nor her mother knew the reasons for that assessment. We also find the Council later provided wrong information in reply to a complaint. These faults caused injustice to Mrs B as distress. The Council has accepted these findings and agreed to remedy Mrs B’s injustice. It has also agreed to make service improvements to improve its practice following this complaint. We set out details at the end of this statement.

Bath and North East Somerset Council (23 019 676)

Statement Upheld Alternative provision 06-Dec-2024

Summary: The complainant complains her son missed out on education for 14 months due to fault by the Council. Our decision is there were two periods where the Council could have done more to ensure the school was providing more education and also the contents of the child’s Education, Health and Care Plan. The Council has agreed to our recommendations.

Bath and North East Somerset Council (24 008 124)

Statement Upheld Special educational needs 21-Jan-2025

Summary: There was a delay of twelve weeks issuing Y’s final Education, Health and Care Plan and a delay in responding to a request for social care advice which caused avoidable frustration and a delay in appeal rights. The Council has apologised, which is a partial remedy. The Council will make a symbolic payment of £250 and a payment of £900 to reflect the loss of a term of special educational provision. There was no fault in the Council sending an additional complaint response at stage one, because this is in line with its policy.