Case Ref: 23 006 167 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will share with the Ombudsman an update on the recruitment to its Special Educational Needs and Disability team and its Complaints team to address its staffing shortfalls and increased demand.
• The Council will review how the Council ensures its Special Educational Needs and Disability team’s casework is progressed and actioned without delay when staff leave, or it experiences staff shortages. This is to ensure it actions and responds to requests and complaints from parents of children, or young people without delay.
• The Council will review how it ensures all special educational needs provision are put in place for children, or young people, as set out in their Education, Health, and Care plans. Including in circumstances where the educational placement can only offer tuition. This should be confirmed when a placement starts, during annual reviews and when issues are reported to the Council.

Case Ref: 23 005 138 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council has agreed to issue written reminders to relevant staff to ensure they are aware of and adhere to statutory timescales regarding the issuing of final EHC Plans after an annual review.

Case Ref: 23 005 026 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Assessment and care plan

• The Council will remind staff of the importance of completing reviews and assessments in a timely manner; and
• The Council will remind the social care team to carry out consultations with the person affected and their families before agreeing a reduction in care provision

Case Ref: 23 004 707 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council has agreed to review its procedures for making alternative educational provision for children who are unable to attend school due to medical reasons or otherwise, to ensure staff are clear that responsibility for the provision of that education, including the decision whether a child is unable to attend school for medical reasons or otherwise, lies with the Council, not the school, and the Council should be weighing up the available evidence to reach that decision as quickly as possible.

Case Ref: 23 003 255 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will review its procedures to ensure it considers all applications for alternative provision because of health reasons in line with statutory guidance. The Council should ensure its policy is in line with the statutory guidance and ensure officers and panel members do not unnecessarily insist on consultant level evidence. The Council should ensure it considers the recommendations from the Ombudsman's focus report ‘Out of school, out of sight?’ published in July 2022.

Case Ref: 23 000 389 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Other

• The council should remind officers when the person who is the subject of a deputyship dies, they do not have authority to contact financial organisations without the executor’s or administrator’s consent.
• The Council should review its deputyship procedures and checklist to ensure it identifies all payments made from a person’s account and makes a decision in the person’s best interests regarding whether to continue making those payments.

Case Ref: 22 017 956 Category: Education Sub Category: Alternative provision

• The Council will issue guidance to officers on the application of its Section 19 duties. This could be in the form of staff training, a briefing paper or a revised policy or guidance document.

Case Ref: 22 016 086 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will review its processes and staff training for annual reviews to ensure reviews are completed within statutory timeframes and plans updated in a timely way.

Case Ref: 22 014 456 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council should ensure it is proactive if it is aware a child is out of school, and it has not received relevant information from the school. And the Council should have a system in place to keep better oversight of children who are receiving a bespoke package of tutoring such as Y to ensure it is appropriate, regularly reviewed, and remains suitable.

Case Ref: 22 013 975 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council already had in place a Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Improvement Plan to address issues within its SEND service, which was being monitored by the Department for Education. The Council agreed to share a copy of our decision with its SEND Improvement Partnership Board, to ensure the faults we identified were considered as part of its SEND Improvement Plan. It agreed to include consideration of how the Council would improve its services to ensure it:meets statutory timescales for all Education, Health, and Care plan reviews, including where it has delegated parts of the review process to a school or other institution;checks with the family and the school that Education, Health, and Care provision is in place in good time, where a child changes placement or their plan changes substantially;investigates and resolves issues without delay where concerns are raised that a child’s Education, Health, and Care plan is not being delivered;responds to queries within its SEND service in good time and keeps families updated; andmeets its duties under Section 19 of the Education Act 1996 to secure alternative education when it is aware a child is out of school for any reason.