Service improvements

Cheshire East Council

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2027

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 11 - 20 of 33 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 (24 000 705)

    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 (23 017 017)

    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.

  • Cheshire East Council (23 010 923)

    Category: Education Date: 28-Feb-2024

    Summary

    Mr X complained that the Council failed to implement provision from his son, Y’s, Education, Health and Care Plan and did not follow its own corporate complaints procedure. We found the Council was at fault for not providing Y with suitable transition from primary school to his secondary school. We also found the Council was at fault in its complaint handling. The Council agreed to apologise, make a payment to Mr X and Y and review its process to improve its practice.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to remind its staff, through appropriate training, of the Council's non-delegable duty to secure the Special Educational Needs provision set out in Section F of a child's Education, Health and Care Plan(EHC Plan).

  • Cheshire East Council (23 003 607)

    Category: Education Date: 08-Feb-2024

    Summary

    Mr X complained about how the Council looked for a new educational placement for his adult daughter, Ms Y. Mr X also complained about how the Council reviewed Ms Y’s Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan, about how it amended the EHC Plan and about its failure to secure the provision in Ms Y’s EHC Plan. The Council was at fault. Mr X also complained about the supported living placement the Council identified for Ms Y. The Council was not at fault in how it decided the placement could meet Ms Y’s needs but was at fault for moving Ms Y to the placement without a sufficiently lengthy transition or an up-to-date care and support plan. The faults caused Mr X and Ms Y significant injustice. To remedy that injustice, the Council should apologise to Mr X, pay him a total of £9500, issue Ms Y’s amended EHC Plan and make improvements to its practice.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind staff they must issue a decision to amend, maintain or cease a child or young person's Education, Health and Care Plan after an annual review meeting.The Council will remind staff they must complete amendments to Education, Health and Care Plans within the timescales set out in law, guidance and by caselaw.

  • Cheshire East Council (23 003 097)

    Category: Education Date: 07-Nov-2023

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council failed to provide suitable alternative provision for her child W. She also complained the Council did not secure W’s special educational provision and delayed in reviewing W’s Education, Health and Care plan. The Council was at fault in how it considered whether it owed W the duty to provide alternative educational provision. It was also at fault for delay in reviewing W’s Education, Health and Care plan and for poor complaint responses. This caused Mrs X frustration and distress and meant W missed out on educational provision. To remedy their injustice, the Council will pay Mrs X £850, apologise and carry out staff training.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind staff in the medical needs tuition team that when considering a referral for a child's tuition, the test they should apply is whether the child would receive a suitable education without the Council making arrangements.The Council should provide the Ombudsman with evidence it has completed the training programme for staff on the new alternative provision school referral process.The Council should remind staff that the recommendations they make for service improvements as part of complaint responses should be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-limited).

  • Cheshire East Council (23 001 848)

    Category: Education Date: 08-Oct-2023

    Summary

    Mrs X complained about failures in the Council’s handling of her request for a change of placement for her son, Y. The Council was at fault for a delay in finalising an annual review carried out in May 2022, failings in its handling of the change of placement request, and failures in sharing information with Mrs X. It will apologise, make a symbolic payment, and use the learning from this case to make improvements to its services.

    Service improvements

    The Council is already reviewing its process for carrying out Education, Health and Care plan reviews. It will provide the Ombudsman with details of that review, including the steps it is taking to ensure annual reviews are completed in line with statutory timescales.The Council will ensure that where officers from its Inclusion Quality team make observations about specific pupils with special educational needs, they will make a record for the child's case file.The Council's Special Educational Needs and Disability training manager will ensure learning from the case is included in the Council's rolling training programme, and particularly that the Council either arranges a review or ensures by some other means that it has full and up-to-date information about a child's needs before considering a change of placement request or consulting with alternative schools.

  • Cheshire East Council (22 014 684)

    Category: Education Date: 23-Jul-2023

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council delayed issuing her child, Child Y’s amended Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan following an annual review in March 2022. The Council was at fault for the delay in issuing Child Y’s EHC plan following the annual review. The Council has already apologised to Mrs X for the delay, which was an appropriate remedy for the injustice caused. Child Y was not caused an injustice by the delay. The Council will provide evidence of how it will reduce similar delays to prevent a reoccurrence of the fault.

    Service improvements

    The Council will review its procedures to improve timeliness for Education Health and Care plan annual reviews and provide the Ombudsman with an action plan of any key actions it has taken or intends to take.

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