Service improvements

Cheshire East Council

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025

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 - 10 of 11 cases with service improvements

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

  • Cheshire East Council (24 006 928)

    Category: Children's care services Date: 06-Mar-2025

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council failed to provide a personal assistant to support her disabled child between February-November 2024. She also complained the Council refused her request for residential respite care. The Council was at fault for failing to provide a personal assistant for a period of nine months. However, the Council assessed Mrs X’s request for residential care in line with the relevant law and guidance without fault. The Council has agreed to apologise and make a payment to Mrs X to recognise the distress, frustration and uncertainty caused by the lack of support that was in place for her child between February-November 2024.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to create an action plan explaining how the Council is intending to increase its pool of personal assistants to help families in need.

  • Cheshire East Council (24 005 228)

    Category: Education Date: 29-Nov-2024

    Summary

    Ms X complained the Council failed to provide suitable full-time alternative provision for her son G when he was unable to attend school from July 2023 until May 2024. The Council was at fault for failing to consider if it should provide, and then failing to provide, alternative provision from February to April 2024. The Council was also at fault for failing to consider if the alternative provision it offered met G’s needs. The Council will apologise and pay Ms X £1,100 to recognise the alternative provision G missed and the uncertainty and frustration caused to Ms X by the Council’s actions. The Council will also review its policy for commissioning alternative provision.

    Service improvements

    The Council remind relevant Council officers of the importance of keeping clear, complete and contemporaneous records of its decision making when deciding if it has a duty to provide alternative provision to meet its duties under section 19 of the Education Act 1996.The Council will review its policy to only commission online provision for children who require alternative provision under section 19 of the Education Act 1996, due to illness or otherwise, and ensure the policy does not fetter its discretion to consider the individual needs of each child, in line with the legislation.

  • Cheshire East Council (24 001 618)

    Category: Education Date: 13-Nov-2024

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council delayed putting Occupational Therapy provision in place as outlined in her daughter’s (Y) Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan following a SEND tribunal order. The Council is at fault for delaying providing some of the Occupational Therapy provision Y requires. This caused Mrs X distress, frustration and uncertainty and impacted Y’s development. The Council should make a payment to recognise this.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to provide the Ombudsman with an action plan specifically around how the Council intends to reduce mainstream Occupational Therapy wait times and a further update on its progress with the backlog three months after providing the plan.

  • Cheshire East Council (24 001 596)

    Category: Education Date: 23-Dec-2024

    Summary

    Mrs X complained that the Council failed to provide alternative education from the end of June 2023 to February 2024 when her child was unable to attend school on health grounds. We have found fault causing an injustice. The Council has agreed to apologise, make a symbolic payment for the lost education and service improvements.

    Service improvements

    the Council will provide training to its early help team, its attendance and out of school officers and its schools about the referral process to its medical tuition team for pupils unable to attend school on health grounds.

  • Cheshire East Council (24 000 705)

    Category: Education Date: 04-Sep-2024

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council did not provide information she requested about applying for a personal budget to secure the specialist educational provision set out in the Education, Health and Care Plans of her two children. The Council failed to provide Mrs X the information she requested which caused her avoidable frustration. The Council will apologise and now provide her with the personal budget information she requested.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind its officers responding to complaints to ensure it provides a full complaint response when it becomes aware it has omitted to respond to a point of complaint initially.

  • Cheshire East Council (23 019 884)

    Category: Education Date: 29-Sep-2024

    Summary

    Ms X complained the Council failed to provide suitable full-time alternative provision for her son Y when he was unable to attend school from September 2023 until July 2024. The Council delayed in responding to Ms X’s concerns which caused her frustration. The Council was not at fault in its actions around Y’s attendance and education. The Council should apologise to Ms X for the avoidable frustration she was caused.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind relevant staff to respond to parent’s concerns about their children's education within three to five working days, and to avoid drift and delay in considering whether a child should receive alternative provision under section 19 of the Education Act 1996.

  • Cheshire East Council (23 019 854)

    Category: Education Date: 16-Oct-2024

    Summary

    Miss X complained about how the Council provided and reviewed her son, Y’s, special education. There was fault in how the Council failed to ensure Y received all the education set out in his Education Health and Care plan, and delayed completing both a review of Y’s plan and deciding on Miss X’s request for direct payments. This caused Y to miss out on education and caused both Miss X and Y avoidable distress. The Council agree to make its decisions about the Y’s plan and direct payments, review Y’s current tuition, apologise to Miss X and Y, and pay them a financial remedy. It also agreed to issue reminders to its staff.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to clarify, with staff responsible for responding to special educational needs complaints, the correct interpretation of the Council's complaints procedure. It should ensure it does not refuse to investigates at stage two of its process which are about issues further consideration by the Council might resolve.

  • Cheshire East Council (23 018 188)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 31-Oct-2024

    Summary

    The complainant says the Council’s assessment of residential care charges is flawed, and it wrongly took safeguarding action. The Council is at fault for not providing proper reasons for some residential care charges and for the way it completed safeguarding. To remedy the anxiety, time and trouble, the errors caused; the Council has agreed to apologise to the complainant and make a symbolic payment. It will also provide clear reasons for its charging decision and make service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council should review what happened in the safeguarding process to see whether any changes are needed to ensure as far as possible the same fault does not occur again;The Council should remind staff, and if necessary, provide staff training on the need to give proper reasoned decision when making decisions on a deprivation of capital.

  • Cheshire East Council (23 017 017)

    Category: Education Date: 08-Aug-2024

    Summary

    Ms X complained the Council failed to provide the specialist educational provision in her children, Y and Z’s, Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plans when they moved into the Council’s area. The Council failed to provide the specialist provision in Y and Z’s Plans between September and October 2023 and did not have due regard to the Armed Forces Covenant. The Council will pay Ms X £2,500 to recognise the injustice caused to her, Y and Z and will review how it manages the transfer of Service children with EHC Plans.

    Service improvements

    The Council will complete a review of its transfer processes to ensure they are in line with the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) code of practice in relation to Service children with Education, Health and Care Plans, and have due regard to the Armed Forces Covenant. The Council will produce a timebound action plan to implement any improvements it identifies as necessary as a result of that review.The Council will remind relevant staff members dealing with transfers of children with Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plans that it should accept the EHC Plan as it is, provide a placement and/or the provision in the Plan and then complete the annual review process set out in the SEND code of practice.

  • Cheshire East Council (23 014 723)

    Category: Education Date: 29-May-2024

    Summary

    The Council delayed finalising Ms X’s child, Z’s, Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan in 2023, failed to make sufficient efforts to find Z a placement in a specialist school and relied on a mainstream school which said it could not meet Z’s needs to provide their education. As a result, Z has not received all the education in their EHC Plan for four terms and this continues to date. To recognise the period of missed education and the uncertainty caused, the Council has agreed to apologise, pay Ms X £7,200, and pay her £2,000 for each additional term this academic year that Z continues not to receive the education in their Plan. To prevent reoccurrence of fault the Council has also agreed to carry out service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to set out to the Ombudsman what steps the Council is taking as part of its Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) sufficiency planning to increase its number of specialist school placements, including expected timeframes for this.The Council has agreed to outline what steps it is taking as part of its SEND improvement strategy to improve its timeliness in carrying out annual reviews and finalising Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plans, and when it expects it will begin to see improvements in this area.The Council has agreed to remind SEND staff that EHC Plans must be finalised within 12 weeks of annual review meetings.The Council has agreed to remind SEND staff that where a school has told the Council it can no longer meet a child or young person’s needs, it cannot rely on that school to continue providing the education in a person’s EHC Plan. Instead a suitable alternative education placement must be found for them.

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