Service improvements

Buckinghamshire 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 - 4 of 4 cases with service improvements

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

  • Buckinghamshire Council (23 012 172)

    Category: Education Date: 21-Mar-2024

    Summary

    There was service failure by the Council. An assessment for an Education, Health and Care Plan was delayed by five months due to a shortage of Educational Psychologists. There was no loss of education during the delay so a payment towards the complainant’s frustration and an apology remedies the injustice.

    Service improvements

    Review its processes to ensure it issues final EHC Plans within statutory timescales.

  • Buckinghamshire Council (22 016 460)

    Category: Education Date: 03-Jul-2023

    Summary

    Mrs X complained about how the Council has managed her son, B’s, education and special educational needs since September 2021. We find the Council was at fault. This caused significant distress to Mrs X and B. The Council has appropriately remedied the injustice to Mrs X. To address the injustice to B, the Council has agreed to pay Mrs X an additional £3,069.24. The Council has also agreed to issue guidance to relevant staff.

    Service improvements

    Issue written reminders to relevant staff to ensure they are aware of:• The Council’s duties under section 19 of the Education Act 1996 to provide provision or suitable education for children of compulsory age who cannot attend school because of exclusion, medical reasons or otherwise.• The statutory guidance for Councils ‘ensuring a good education for children whocannot attend school because of health needs’ which states the law does not define full-time education but children with health needs should have provision which is equivalent to the education they would receive in school.

  • Buckinghamshire Council (22 015 839)

    Category: Education Date: 12-Sep-2023

    Summary

    The complainant (Miss X) said the Council failed to provide her son (Y) with alternative education and special educational provision listed in his Education Health and Care (EHC) plan since January 2022. She also complained about the social care support for Y, the delays in the reassessment of Y’s needs and the Council’s refusal to fund Y’s travel to and from his therapy providers. We found fault with the Council’s reimbursement of Miss X’s travel costs and also with the delays in issuing Y’s amended EHC plan after the reassessment of his needs. This fault caused injustice to Miss X and Y. We also found fault with the way the Council carried out the children’s statutory complaint procedure for Miss X, but this fault did not cause injustice to her or to Y. We did not find fault with the provision of alternative education to Y or with the delivery of his special educational provision. We recommend the Council apologise, make a payment to recognise her distress and carry out some service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council will review its personal budget process to ensure that when agreeing personal budget for children with EHC plans the Council provides their parents with the written agreement and detailed information on the documents needed before the Council makes direct payments.The Council will identify reasons for any delays in EHC needs reassessments and in the statutory children's complaint procedure and prepare a plan of action to ensure improvement.

  • Buckinghamshire Council (22 013 110)

    Category: Education Date: 15-May-2023

    Summary

    Ms X complains the Council did not provide suitable school transport for her disabled daughter. She says the taxi service provided by the Council caused her daughter stress and anxiety and was not reasonably safe. Ms X said the Council’s actions meant she had to take her daughter to and from school, incurring time and trouble to her. We found fault by the Council and the Council has agreed to provide a remedy to recognise the injustice identified.

    Service improvements

    Remind staff of the importance of retaining records to demonstrate how it has considered its general equality duty when making decisions and reviewing services.Remind staff that responses to Ombudsman enquiries provide all of the information requested and are checked for accuracy prior to issue.

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