Case Ref: 24 005 341 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will issue a staff briefing to remind all relevant staff of the importance of meeting statutory timescales for EHC Plan annual reviews. This will help to ensure annual reviews are completed in a timely manner without delay.

Case Ref: 24 001 065 Category: Education Sub Category: Alternative provision

• The Council agreed to issue a reminder to relevant staff, with a copy of our decision, to ensure it properly considers and records its section 19 duties to arrange suitable alternative education when a child is out of school, and keeps this under regular review.
• The Council agreed to review its process for when a child with an Education, Health, and Care Plan is out of school, to ensure it meets its duty to secure the provision in the Plan as far as possible outside a school setting. It will decide whether it needs to make any administrative changes to its processes, or deliver training to staff, to ensure this is not missed in future.
• The Council agreed to issue a reminder to relevant complaint handling staff about its two-stage complaints procedure. It should explain the importance of escalating complaints about the same issues to Stage 2 instead of reconsidering at Stage 1, so as not to delay complainants in approaching the Ombudsman.

Case Ref: 23 019 550 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will provide the Ombudsman with an update on its actions to improve its Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) service, including:• recruitment of SEND staff;• the implementation of the new case management system;• timescales for introducing a portal environment for casework; and• what improvements it has implemented to improve its consultation process with schools.

Case Ref: 23 015 876 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council agreed that it would review its current procedure for following up on actions it agrees to take where it has upheld a complaint. It should be clear to the complainant who will be taking the action agreed and by when, and the Council should have a process in place to ensure it has taken that action. In this case the Council had failed to provide such clarification or make such checks.
• The Council agreed it would provide a briefing to all its staff who respond to complaints about special education needs provision on the importance of signposting complainant to the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal, where appropriate. In this case the Council, in the course of answering a complaint, had become involved in a dispute that it was more appropriate the complainant pursue through appealing to the Tribunal.
• The Council agreed to review its procedure for undertaking social care needs assessments for children not previously known to its children's social services, where it is undertaking an education, health and care needs assessment. This was to ensure it could complete the 'care assessment' element within Government timescales and that officers in both education and children's social care staff were aware of their responsibilities in this area.
• The Council agreed to circulate among managers in its complaint and children's services, a focus report issued by the Ombudsman called Equal Access. This was to raise awareness of the principles of good administrative practice necessary for underpinning a commitment to ensure reasonable adjustments for disabled users of services.

Case Ref: 23 012 673 Category: Children's care services Sub Category: Child protection

• The Council agreed to remind its staff of the importance of ensuring that all relevant parties are included in the Child and Family Assessment process.

Case Ref: 23 009 964 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• Complete and publish the information about what young people can expect from a person-centre approach and publish this on its SEND Information Hub (Local Offer).
• Complete and publish information in an accessible format on the Pathways through its processes on reviewing, maintaining, and amending EHC Plans and publish this on its SEND Information Hub (Local Offer).

Case Ref: 23 006 386 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Assessment and care plan

• The Council has agreed to identify the action it is going to take to ensure future assessments of Ms Y’s capacity meet the requirements it has agreed are necessary.

Case Ref: 22 017 307 Category: Education Sub Category: School transport

• The Council has agreed to explain to the Ombudsman what it will do to ensure sufficient processes are in place to reduce the risk of provision specified in children's Education, Health and Care Plans not being delivered.

Case Ref: 22 017 284 Category: Children's care services Sub Category: Friends and family carers

• By training or other means remind staff of the importance of adhering to statutory Special Guardianship legislation and guidance. Ensure the Council issues notices of its decisions to special guardians in a timely manner and allow them the opportunity to make representations, if they wish to do so.
• Ensure the Council keeps robust records and evidence of how it considers and makes decisions about special guardians’ requests.
• By training or other means remind staff of the importance of following the Council’s complaints procedure, identifying and understanding issues raised in service users’ complaints. This is to ensure the issues raised are investigated appropriately in line with its complaints procedure and in a timely manner regardless of the channel the complaints are made. For example, complaints made via MP enquiries.

Case Ref: 22 016 374 Category: Children's care services Sub Category: Child protection

• The Council agreed to brief all relevant staff who assess or triage child safeguarding referrals on the importance of keeping written records of all communications with parents or professionals sharing information and of the importance of professional reflection if new evidence comes to light that indicates a change in the child's circumstances following an earlier decision.