Case Ref: 24 010 640 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• To improve its complaints handling, the Council agreed to: • Write to service managers responsible for complaints handling and instruct them to check if complainants want a stage 2 complaint response if this is not clear from their correspondence. • Write to complaints officers to remind them of the importance of both opening all messages posted to its online complaint service and then responding to them quickly and in line with relevant published time targets.

Case Ref: 24 001 607 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Assessment and care plan

• The Council has agreed to:a) take action to ensure people’s care and support plans are reviewed at least every 12 months;b) identify the action it is going to take to ensure that, when people raise complaints about the Council and other commissioned services, they receive a consolidated response to all their concerns.

Case Ref: 24 002 922 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Charging

• The Council agreed that it would review the communications it has with those who use adult care services, or their relatives, in the event of an NHS decision to remove continuing healthcare funding. This was to ensure those affected by such decisions knew the Council would assess care needs and to provide some basic information about when it might fund social care needs.
• The Council agreed that further to the review of communications it would also brief its social work staff on its expectations. This briefing would highlight the importance of transparency and openness about its involvement in such cases, areas where we found fault with the Council during this investigation.

Case Ref: 23 019 676 Category: Education Sub Category: Alternative provision

• The Council will review its policies and procedures to make sure it retains sufficient oversight and control over what a school is doing on its behalf.

Case Ref: 23 014 363 Category: Education Sub Category: Alternative provision

• The Council will share this decision with relevant staff.

Case Ref: 23 006 727 Category: Education Sub Category: Alternative provision

• The Council will send a reminder to officers dealing with EHC needs assessments to remind them of the need to comply with the timescales in the code of practice.
• The Council will provide evidence to the Ombudsman of the work it is undertaking as part of the business change programme to track annual reviews of EHC plans to make sure the timescales set out in the code of practice are adhered to.

Case Ref: 22 017 440 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Residential care

• Within three months of my decision, the Council will review its policies to ensure people are offered choice as part of this discharge process, or any decision to restrict choice is properly considered and recorded. The Council will also ensure that all staff are aware of any changes arising from this.

Case Ref: 22 011 772 Category: Transport and highways Sub Category: Parking and other penalties

• The Council has agreed to review its current approach to taking payments by text message and telephone to ensure car park users are charged the correct amount for the duration of their stay, taking account of varied evening and overnight tariffs.

Case Ref: 22 009 364 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Charging

• The Council will carry out a training session for social workers in how to assess DRE.

Case Ref: 21 012 022 Category: Education Sub Category: School transport

• The Council agreed to ensure panel members considering school transport appeals make notes of their deliberations. It will also ensure the panel provide parents with detailed explanations of its decisions in the transport appeal decision letter.